BY  ELIA  W.  PEATTIE. 

CARADOC  EVANS,  born  In  abject 
poverty  In  Carnarthenshire, 
Wales,  one  of  ten  fatherless  chil- 
dren, growing  up  on  little  and 
wretched  food  and  winning  his  way  by 
the  humblest  labor  and  severest  apli- 
cation,  and  now  a  London  journalist, 
has  become'  known  as  the  author  of 
Welsh  sketches  of  such  pitiless  realism 
that  they  have  attracted  the  attention 
of  writers  and  critics  on  both  sides  of 
the  Atlantic.  His  first  volume  was 
called  "My  People,"  and  it  amounted 
to  a  terrific  indictment  of  the  common 
Welsh  people;  or,  rather,  it  would  have 
been  so  construed  had  any  one  believed 
that  the  Welsh  were  the  obscene,  in- 
cestuous, thieving,  lying,  and  altogeth- 
er hideous  people  he  described  them 
as  being.  A  second  book  follows  much 
like  the  first,  and  it  is  called  "My 
Neighbors,"  [Harcourt,  Brace  & 
Howe.] 

Again  We  meet  with  a  group  of 
treacherous,  filthy,  and  lecherous  peo- 
ple. The  publishers,  with  a  degree  of 
geniality  almost  incredible  under  the 
circumstances,  refer  to  the  tales  as  a 
satirical  set  of  character  sketches  with 
a  kindly  outlook  on  human  lite.  I  per- 
ceive no  kindness,  no  humor,  and.  only 
a  limited  view  of  truth.  No  community 
exists  without  a  preponderance  of  well 
intentioned  people — at  least  not  outside 
of  hell.  In  Mr.  Evans'  book  there  is 
not  one  human  being  portrayed  with 
whom  a  self-respecting  person  would 
associate.  Such  a  book  cannot  be  great 
because  it  lacks  the  essence  of  truth. 
Also  it  suffers  from  artistic  defection 
because  it  requires  light  and  shade  to 
make  a  truthful  picture.  Furthermore, 
it  is  boresome  because  it  is  ugly.  No 
doubt  the  swashbuckling  critics  will 
call  it  strong  because  it  is  offensive. 
But  I  no  more  regard  it  as  strong  than 
I  would  regard  a  man  as  strong  who 
had  curvature  of  the  spine  with  inci- 
dental rickets. 


MY   NEIGHBORS 


MY  NEIGHBORS 

STORIES   OF   THE   WELSH   PEOPLE 

BY 
CARADOC   EVANS 


NEW  YORK 

HARCOURT,    BRACE   AND  HOWE 
1920 


COPYRIGHT,     1920,    BY 
HABCOUBT,     BRACE    AND    HOWE,    INC. 


THE  QUINN  «  BODEN  COMPANY 
RAHWAY.  N     J. 


TO 

MY    FRIEND 
THOMAS    BURKE 

OF  "LIMKHOUSE  NIGHTS" 


CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  PAGE 

THE  WELSH  PEOPLE        ...  3 

I.     LOVE  AND  HATE       .        .        .        .  11 

II.     ACCORDING  TO  THE  PATTERN  .         .  31 

III.     THE  Two  APOSTLES        ...  59 

IV.     EARTHBRED 81 

V.     FOR  BETTER 99 

VI.     TREASURE  AND  TROUBLE  .        .        .  117 

VII.     SAINT  DAVID  AND  THE  PROPHETS  .  131 

VIII.     JOSEPH'S  HOUSE       ....  155 

IX.     LIKE  BROTHERS          ....  173 

X.     A  WIDOW  WOMAN     .        .        .        .187 

XI.     UNANSWERED  PRAYERS     .        .        .199 

XII.     LOST  TREASURE         ....  215 

XIII.     PROFIT  AND  GLORY  .  231 


THE  WELSH  PEOPLE 


THE  WELSH  PEOPLE 

OUR  God  is  a  big  man:  a  tall  man  much 
higher  than  the  highest  chapel  in  Wales 
and  broader  than  the  broadest  chapel.  For 
the  promised  day  that  He  comes  to  deliver 
us  a  sermon  we  shall  have  made  a  hole  in 
the  roof  and  taken  down  a  wall.  Our  God 
has  a  long,  white  beard,  and  he  is  not 
unlike  the  Father  Christmas  of  picture- 
books.  Often  he  lies  on  his  stomach  on 
Heaven's  floor,  an  eye  at  one  of  his  myr- 
iads of  peepholes,  watching  that  we  keep 
his  laws.  Our  God  wears  a  frock  coat,  a 
starched  linen  collar  and  black  necktie,  and 
a  silk  hat,  and  on  the  Sabbath  he  preaches 
to  the  congregation  of  Heaven. 

Heaven  is  a  Welsh  chapel;  but  its  pulpit 
is  of  gold,  and  its  walls,  pews,  floor,  roof, 
harmonium,  and  its  clock — which  marks 
the  days  of  the  month  as  well  as  the  hours 
of  the  day — are  of  glass.  The  inhabitants 
are  clothed  in  the  white  shirts  in  which 


MY    NEIGHBORS 


they  were  buried  and  in  which  they  arose 
at  the  Call;  and  the  language  of  God  and 
his  angels  and  of  the  Company  of  Prophets 
is  Welsh,  that  being  the  language  spoken 
in  the  Garden  of  Eden  and  by  Jacob, 
Moses,  Abraham,  and  Elijah. 

Wales  is  Heaven  on  earth,  and  every 
Welsh  chapel  is  a  little  Heaven;  and  God 
has  favored  us  greatly  by  choosing  to  rule 
over  us  preachers  who  are  fashioned  in  his 
likeness  and  who  are  without  spot  or 
blemish. 

Every  Welsh  child  knows  that  the 
preacher  is  next  to  God ;  "  I  am  the  Big 
Man's  photograph,"  the  preacher  shouts; 
and  the  child  is  brought  up  in  the  fear 
of  the  preacher. 

Jealous  of  his  trust,  the  preacher  has 
made  rules  for  the  salvation  of  our  bodies 
and  souls.  Temptations  such  as  art, 
drama,  dancing,  and  the  study  of  folk- 
lore he  has  removed  from  our  way.  Those 
are  vanities,  which  make  men  puffed  up 
and  vainglorious;  and  they  are  unsavory 


THE    WELSH    PEOPLE 


in  the  nostrils  of  the  Big  Man.  And  look 
you,  the  preacher  asks,  do  they  not  cost 
money?  Are  they  not  time  wasters?  The 
capel  needs  your  money,  boys  bach,  that 
the  light — the  grand,  religious  light — shall 
shine  in  the  pulpit. 

That  is  the  lamp  which  burns  through- 
out Wales.  It  keeps  our  feet  from  Church 
door  and  public  house,  and  it  guides  us 
to  the  polling  booth  where  we  record  our 
votes  as  the  preacher  has  instructed  us. 
Be  the  season  never  so  hard  and  be  men 
and  women  never  so  hungry,  its  flame  does 
not  wane  and  the  oil  in  its  vessel  is  not 
low. 

White  cabbages  and  new  potatoes,  eggs 
and  measures  of  corn,  milk  and  butter  and 
money  we  give  to  the  preacher.  We  trim 
our  few  acres  until  our  shoulders  are 
crutched  and  the  soil  is  in  the  crevices  of 
our  flesh  that  his  estate  shall  be  a  glory 
unto  God.  We  make  for  him  a  house 
which  is  as  a  mansion  set  amid  hovels  and 
for  the  building  thereof  the  widow  must 


6  MY    NEIGHBORS 

set  aside  portions  of  her  weekly  old  age 
pension.  These  things  and  many  more  we 
do,  for  forgiveness  of  sin  is  obtained  by 
sacrifice.  Such  folk  as  hold  back  their  of- 
ferings have  their  names  proclaimed  in  the 
pulpit. 

Said  the  preacher:  "  Heavy  was  the  pun- 
ishment of  the  Big  Man  on  Twm  Cwm, 
persons,  because  Twm  speeched  against 
the  capel.  Was  he  not  put  in  the  coffin 
in  his  farm  trowsis  and  jacket?  And  do 
you  know,  the  Big  Man  cast  a  brightness 
on  his  buttons  for  him  to  be  known  in  the 
blackness  of  hell." 

It  is  no  miracle  that  we  are  religious. 
Our  God  is  just  behind  the  preacher,  and 
he  is  in  the  semblance  of  the  preacher;  and 
we  believe  in  him  truly.  It  is  no  miracle 
that  we  are  prayerful.  Our  God  is  by  us 
in  our  hagglings  and  cheatings.  Becca 
Penffos  prays  that  the  dealer's  eyes  are 
closed  to  the  disease  of  her  hen;  Shon 
Forth  asks  the  Big  Man  to  destroy  his 
pregnant  sister  into  whose  bed  Satan  en- 


THE    WELSH    PEOPLE 


ticed  him;  lanto  Tybach  says:  "Give  me 
a  nice  bit  of  haymaking  weather,  God  bach. 
Strike  my  brother  Enoch  dead  and  blind 
and  see  I  have  his  fields  without  any  old 
bother.  A  champion  am  I  in  the  religion 
and  there's  gifts  I  give  the  preacher.  Ask 
him.  That's  all.  Amen." 

Although  we  know  God,  we  are  afraid 
of  to-morrow:  one  will  steal  our  seeds,  a 
horse  will  perish,  our  wife  will  die  and  a 
servant  woman  will  have  to  be  hired  to  the 
time  that  we  find  another  wife,  the  Eng- 
lishman whom  we  defrauded  in  the  market 
place  will  come  and  seek  his  rights. 

We  are  what  we  have  been  made  by  our 
preachers  and  politicians,  and  thus  we  re- 
main. Among  ourselves  our  repute  is  ill. 
Our  villages  and  countryside  are  populated 
with  the  children  of  cousins  who  have  mar- 
ried cousins  and  of  women  who  have  played 
the  harlot  with  their  brothers;  and  no  one 
loves  his  neighbor.  Abroad  we  are  dis- 
trusted and  disdained.  This  is  said  of  us: 
"A  Welshman's  bond  is  as  worthless  as 


MY    NEIGHBORS 


his  word."  We  traffic  in  prayers  and 
hymns,  and  in  the  name  of  Jesus  Christ, 
and  we  display  a  spurious  heart  upon  our 
breast.  Our  politicians,  crafty  pupils  of 
the  preachers  and  now  their  masters,  weep 
and  moan  in  the  public  places  as  if  they 
were  women  in  childbirth;  in  their  souls 
they  are  lustful  and  cruel  and  greedy. 
They  have  made  themselves  the  slaves  of 
the  wicked,  and  like  asses  their  eyes  are 
lifted  no  higher  than  the  golden  carrot 
which  is  their  reward  from  the  wicked. 
Not  of  one  of  us  it  can  be  said :  "  He  is  a 
great  man,"  or  "  He  is  a  good  man,"  or 
"  He  is  an  honest  man." 

Maybe  the  living  God  will  consider  our 
want  of  knowledge  and  act  mercifully  to- 
ward us. 


LOVE  AND  HATE 


I 

LOVE  AND  HATE 

BY  living  frugally — setting  aside  a  por- 
tion of  his  Civil  Service  pay  and  holding 
all  that  he  got  from  two  butchers  whose 
trade  books  he  kept  in  proper  order — 
Adam  Powell  became  possessed  of  Cartref 
in  which  he  dwelt  and  which  is  in  Barnes, 
and  two  houses  in  Thornton  East;  and  one 
of  the  houses  in  Thornton  East  he  let  to 
his  widowed  daughter  Olwen,  who  carried 
on  a  dressmaking  business.  At  the  end 
of  his  term  he  retired  from  his  office,  his 
needs  being  fulfilled  by  a  pension,  and 
his  evening  eased  by  the  ministrations  of 
his  elder  daughter  Lisbeth. 

Soon  an  inward  malady  seized  him,  and 
in  the  belief  that  he  would  not  be  rid  of  it, 
he  called  Lisbeth  and  Olwen,  to  whom 
both  he  pronounced  his  will. 

'  The  Thornton  East  property  I  give 
11 


12  MY    NEIGHBORS 

you,"  he  said.  "  Number  seven  for  Lissi 
and  eight  for  Olwen  as  she  is.  It  will  be 
pleasant  to  be  next  door,  and  Lissi  is  not 
likely  to  marry  at  her  age  which  is  ad- 
vanced. Share  and  share  alike  of  the  furni- 
ture, and  what's  left  sell  with  the  house 
and  haff  the  proceeds.  If  you  don't  fall 
out  in  the  sharing,  you  never  will  again." 

At  once  Lisbeth  and  Olwen  embraced. 

"  My  sister  is  my  best  friend,"  was  the 
testimony  of  the  elder;  "we  shan't  go 
astray  if  we  follow  the  example  of  the 
dad  and  mother,"  was  that  of  the  younger. 

'  Take  two  or  three  excursion  trains 
to  Aberporth  for  the  holidays,"  said 
Adam,  "  and  get  a  little  gravel  for  the 
mother's  grave  in  Beulah.  And  a  cheap 
artificial  wreath.  They  last  better  than 
real  ones.  It  was  in  Beulah  that  me  and 
your  mother  learnt  about  Jesus." 

Together  Olwen  and  Lisbeth  pledged 
that  they  would  attend  their  father's 
behests:  shunning  ill-will  and  continually 
petitioning  to  be  translated  to  the  King- 


LOVE    AND    HATE  13 

dom  of  God;  "but,"  Lisbeth  laughed 
falsely,  "you  are  not  going  to  die.  The 
summer  will  do  wonders  for  you." 

"  You  are  as  right  as  a  top  really," 
cried  Olwen.  * 

Beholding  that  his  state  was  the  main 
concern  of  his  children,  Adam  counted 
himself  blessed;  knowing  of  a  surety 
that  the  designs  of  God  stand  fast 
against  prayer  and  physic,  he  said :  "  I 
am  shivery  all  over." 

A  fire  was  kindled  and  coals  piled  upon 
it  that  it  was  scarce  to  be  borne,  and 
three  blankets  were  spread  over  those 
which  were  on  his  bed,  and  three  earthen 
bottles  which  held  heated  water  were  put 
in  his  bed;  and  yet  the  old  man  got  no 
warmth. 

"  I'll  manage  now  alone,"  said  Lisbeth 
on  the  Saturday  morning.  "  You'll  have 
Jennie  and  her  young  gentleman  home 
for  Sunday.  Should  he  turn  for  the  worse 
I'll  send  for  you." 

Olwen  left,  and  in  the  afternoon  came 


14.  MY    NEIGHBORS 

Jennie  and  Charlie  from  the  drapery  shop 
in  which  they  were  engaged;  and  sighing 
and  sobbing  she  related  to  them  her 
father's  will. 

"  If  I  was  you,  ma,"  Jennie  counseled, 
"  I  wouldn't  leave  him  too  much  alone 
with  Aunt  Liz.  You  never  can  tell. 
Funny  things  may  happen." 

"  I'd  trust  Aunt  Liz  anywhere,"  Olwen 
declared,  loath  to  have  her  sister  charged 
with  unfaithfulness. 

"What  do  you  think,  Charlie?"  asked 
Jennie. 

The  young  man  stiffened  his  slender 
body  and  inclined  his  pale  face  and  rubbed 
his  nape,  and  he  proclaimed  that  there 
was  no  discourse  of  which  the  meaning 
was  hidden  from  him  and  no  device  with 
which  he  was  not  familiar;  and  he 
answered:  "I  would  stick  on  the  spot." 

That  night  Olwen  made  her  customary 
address  to  God,  and  before  she  came  up 
from  her  knees  or  uncovered  her  eyes, 


LOVE    AND    HATE  15 

she  extolled  to  God  the  acts  of  her  father 
Adam.  But  slumber  kept  from  her  be- 
cause of  that  which  Jennie  had  spoken; 
and  diffiding  the  humor  of  her  heart,  she 
said  to  herself:  "Liz  must  have  a  chance 
of  going  on  with  some  work."  At  that 
she  slept;  and  early  in  the  day  she  was 
in  Cartref. 

"  Jennie  and  Charlie  insist  you  rest,"  she 
told  Lisbeth.  "  She  can  manage  quite 
nicely,  and  there's  Charlie  which  is  a  help. 
So  should  any  one  who  is  twenty-three." 

For  a  week  the  daughters  waited  on 
their  father  and  contrived  they  never  so 
wittily  to  free  him  from  his  disorder — Did 
they  not  strip  and  press  against  him? — 
they  could  not  deliver  him  from  the  wind 
of  dead  men's  feet.  They  stitched  black 
cloth  into  garments  and  while  they  stitched 
they  mumbled  the  doleful  hymns  of  Sion. 
Two  yellow  plates  were  fixed  on  Adam's 
coffin — this  was  in  accordance  with  the 
man's  request — and  the  engraving  on  one 


16  MY    NEIGHBORS 

was  in  the  Welsh  tongue,  and  on  the  other 
in  the  English  tongue,  and  the  reason  was 
this:  that  the  angel  who  lifts  the  lid — be 
he  of  the  English  or  of  the  Welsh — shall 
know  immediately  that  the  dead  is  of  the 
people  chosen  to  have  the  first  seats  in 
the  Mansion. 

The  sisters  removed  from  Cartref  such 
things  as  pleased  them;  Lisbeth  chose  more 
than  Olwen,  for  her  house  was  bare;  and 
in  the  choosing  each  gave  in  to  the  other, 
and  neither  harbored  a  mean  thought. 

With  her  chattels  and  her  sewing 
machine,  Lisbeth  entered  number  seven, 
which  is  in  Park  Villas,  and  separated 
from  the  railway  by  a  wood  paling,  and 
from  then  on  the  sisters  lived  by  the  rare 
fruits  of  their  joint  industry;  and  never, 
except  on  the  Sabbath,  did  they  shed 
their  thimbles  or  the  narrow  bright  scissors 
which  hung  from  their  waists.  Some  of 
the  poor  middle-class  folk  near-by  brought 
to  them  their  measures  of  materials,  and 
the  more  honorable  folk  who  dwelt  in  the 


LOVEANDHATE  17 

avenues  beyond  Upper  Richmond  Road 
crossed  the  steep  railway  bridge  with 
blouses  and  skirts  to  b^  reformed. 

'  We  might  be  selling  Cartref  now,"  said 
Olwen  presently. 

"  I  leave  it  to  you,"  Lisbeth  remarked. 

"And  I  leave  it  to  you.  It's  as  much 
yours  as  mine." 

"  Suppose  we  consult  Charlie?  " 

"  He's  a  man,  and  he'll  do  the  best  he 
can." 

'  Yes,  he's  very  cute  is  Charlie." 

Charlie  gave  an  ear  unto  Olwen,  and  he 
replied:  'You  been  done  in.  It's  dis- 
graceful how's  she's  took  everything  that 
were  best." 

"  She  had  nothing  to  go  on  with,"  said 
Olwen.  "  And  it  will  come  back.  It  will 
be  all  Jennie's." 

:<  What  guarantee  have  you  of  that? 
That's  my  question.  What  guarantee?" 

Olwen  was  silent.  She  was  not  wishful 
of  disparaging  her  sister  or  of  squabbling 
with  Charlie. 


18  MY    NEIGHBORS 

"  Well,"  said  Charlie,  "  I  must  have  an 
entirely  free  hand.  Give  it  an  agent  if 
you  prefer.  They're  a  lively  lot." 

He  went  about  over-praising  Cartref. 
"  With  the  sticks  and  they're  not  rubbish," 
he  swore,  "  it's  worth  five  hundred.  Three- 
fifty  will  buy  the  lot." 

A  certain  man  said  to  him:  "I'll  give 
you  two-twenty";  and  Charlie  replied: 
"  Nothing  doing." 

Twelve  months  he  was  in  selling  the 
house,  and  for  the  damage  which  in  the 
meanseason  had  been  done  to  it  by  a  bomb 
and  by  fire  and  water  the  sum  of  money 
that  he  received  was  one  hundred  and  fifty 
pounds. 

Lisbeth  had  her  share,  and  Olwen  had 
her  share,  and  each  applauded  Charlie, 
Lisbeth  assuring  him:  "You'll  never  re- 
gret it  ";  and  this  is  how  Charlie  applauded 
himself:  "  No  one  else  could  have  got  so 
much." 

:'  The  house  and  cash  will  be  a  nice  egg- 
nest  for  Jennie,"  Olwen  announced. 


LOVEANDHATE  19 

"  And  number  seven  and  mine  will  make 
it  more,"  added  Lisbeth. 

"  It's  a  great  comfort  that  she'll  never 
want  a  roof  over  her,"  said  Olwen. 

Mindful  of  their  vows  to  their  father, 
the  sisters  lived  at  peace  and  held  their 
peace  in  the  presence  of  their  prattling 
neighbors.  On  Sundays,  togged  in  black 
gowns  on  which  were  ornaments  of  jet, 
they  worshiped  in  the  Congregational 
Chapel;  and  as  they  stood  up  in  their 
pew,  you  saw  that  Olwen  was  as  the  tall 
trunk  of  a  tree  at  whose  shoulders  are  the 
stumps  of  chopped  branches,  and  that  Lis- 
beth's  body  was  as  a  billhook.  Once  they 
journeyed  to  Aberporth  and  they  laid  a 
wreath  of  wax  flowers  and  a  thick  layer 
of  gravel  on  their  mother's  grave.  They 
tore  a  gap  in  the  wall  which  divided  their 
little  gardens,  and  their  feet,  so  often  did 
one  visit  the  other,  trod  a  path  from  back- 
door to  backdoor. 

Nor  was  their  love  confused  in  the 
joy  that  each  had  in  Jennie,  for 


20  MY    NEIGHBORS 

whom  sacrifices  were  made  and  treasures 
hoarded. 

But  Jennie  was  discontented,  puling  for 
what  she  could  not  have,  mourning  her 
lowly  fortune,  deploring  her  spinsterhood. 

"  Bert  and  me  are  getting  married 
Christmas,"  she  said  on  a  day. 

"  Hadn't  you  better  wait  a  while,"  said 
Olwen.  "  You're  young." 

"  We  talked  of  that.  Charlie  is  getting 
on.  He's  thirty-eight,  or  will  be  in  Jan- 
uary. We'll  keep  on  in  the  shop  and  have 
sleep-out  vouchers  and  come  here  week- 
ends." 

As  the  manner  is,  the  mother  wept. 

"  You've  nothing  to  worry  about,"  Lis- 
beth  assuaged  her  sister.  "  He's  steady 
and  respectable.  We  must  see  that  she 
does  it  in  style.  You  look  after  the  other 
arrangements  and  I'll  see  to  her  clothes." 

She  walked  through  wind  and  rain  and 
sewed  by  day  and  night,  without  heed  of 
the  numbness  which  was  creeping  into  her 
limbs;  and  on  the  floor  of  a  box  she  put 


LOVE    AND    HATE  21 

six  jugs  which  had  been  owned  by  the 
Welshwoman  who  was  Adam's  grand- 
mother, and  over  the  jugs  she  arrayed  the 
clothes  she  had  made,  and  over  all  she  put 
a  piece  of  paper  on  which  she  had  written, 
'  To  my  darling  niece  from  her  Aunt 
Lisbeth." 

Jennie  examined  her  aunt's  handiwork 
and  was  exceedingly  wrathful. 

"  I  shan't  wear  them,"  she  cried.  "  She 
might  have  spoken  to  me  before  she  started. 
After  all,  it's  my  wedding.  Not  hers. 
Pwf!  I  can  buy  better  jugs  in  the  six- 
pence-apenny  bazaar." 

"Aunt  Liz  will  alter  them,"  Olwen 
began. 

"  I  agree  with  her,"  said  Charlie. 
"Aunt  Liz  should  be  more  considerate 
seeing  what  I  have  done  for  her0  But  for 
me  she  wouldn't  have  any  money  at  all." 

Charlie  and  Jennie  stirred  their  rage  and 
gave  utterance  to  the  harshest  sayings  they 
could  devise  about  Lisbeth ;  "  and  I  don't 
care  if  she's  listening  outside  the  door," 


22  MY    NEIGHBORS 

said  Charlie ;  "  and  you  can  tell  her  it's 
me  speaking,"  said  Jennie. 

Throughout  Saturday  and  Sunday 
Jennie  pouted  and  dealt  rudely  and  un- 
civilly with  her  mother;  and  on  Monday, 
at  the  hour  she  was  preparing  to  depart, 
Olwen  relented  and  gave  her  twenty 
pounds,  wherefore  on  the  wedding  day 
Lisbeth  was  astonished. 

'  Why  aren't  you  wearing  my  pres- 
ents? "  she  asked. 

"That's  it,"  Jennie  shouted.  "Don't 
you  forget  to  throw  cold  water,  will  you? 
It  wouldn't  be  you  if  you  did.  I  don't 
want  to.  See?  And  if  you  don't  like 
it,  lump  it." 

Olwen  calmed  her  sister,  whispering: 
"  She's  excited.  Don't  take  notice." 

At  the  quickening  of  the  second  dawn 
after  Christmas,  Jennie  and  Bert  arose, 
and  Jennie  having  hidden  her  wedding- 
ring,  they  two  went  about  their  business; 
and  when  at  noon  Olwen  proceeded  to 
number  seven,  she  found  that  Lisbeth  had 


LOVEANDHATE  23 

been  taken  sick  of  the  palsy  and  was  fallen 
upon  the  floor.  Lisbeth  was  never  well 
again,  and  what  time  she  understood  all 
that  Olwen  had  done  for  her,  she  melted 
into  tears. 

"  I  should  have  gone  but  for  you,"  she 
averred.  "  The  money's  Jennie's,  which  is 
the  same  as  I  had  it  and  under  the  mat- 
tress, and  the  house  is  Jennie's." 

"  She's  fortunate,"  returned  Olwen. 
"She'll  never  want  for  ten  shillings  a 
week  which  it  will  fetch.  You  are  kind 
indeed." 

"Don't  neglect  them  for  me,"  Lisbeth 
urged.  "I'll  be  quite  happy  if  you  drop 
in  occasionally." 

"Are  you  not  my  sister?"  Olwen  cried. 
"I'm  having  a  bed  for  you  in  our  front 
sitting-room.  You  won't  be  lonely." 

Winter,  spring,  and  summer  passed,  and 
the  murmurs  of  Jennie  and  Charlie  against 
Lisbeth  were  grown  into  a  horrid  clamor. 

"  Hush,  she'll  hear  you,"  Olwen  always 
implored.  "  It  won't  be  for  much  longer. 


24  MY    NEIGHBORS 

The  doctor  says  she  may  go  any  min- 
ute." 

"  Or  last  ages,"  said  Charlie. 

"Jennie  will  have  the  house  and  the 
money,"  Olwen  pleaded.  "  And  the 
money  hasn't  been  touched.  Same  as  you 
gave  it  to  her.  She  showed  it  to  me  under 
the  mattress.  Not  every  one  have  two 
houses." 

"  By  then  you  will  have  bought  it  over 
and  over  again,"  said  Charlie.  "  Doesn't 
give  Jennie  and  me  much  chance  of  sav- 
ing, does  it? " 

"  And  she  can't  eat  this  and  can't  eat 
that,"  Jennie  screamed.  "  She  won't,  she 


means." 


Weekly  was  Olwen  harassed  with  new 
disputes,  and  she  rued  that  she  had  said: 
"  I'll  have  a  bed  for  you  in  our  front  sit- 
ting-room " ;  and  as  it  falls  out  in  family 
quarrels,  she  sided  with  her  daughter  and 
her  daughter's  husband. 

So  the  love  of  the  sisters  became  forced 
and  strained,  each  speaking  and  answering 


LOVEANDHATE  25 


rith  an  ill-favored  mouth;  it  was  no  longer 
ntire  and  nothing  that  was  professed 
inited  it  together. 

"  I  must  make  my  will  now,"  Lisbeth 
inted  darkly. 

"  Perhaps  Charlie  will  oblige  you,"  re- 
died  Olwen. 

"  Charlie!  You  make  me  smile.  Why, 
e  can't  keep  a  wife." 

"  I  thought  you  had  settled  all  that," 
)lwen  faltered. 

"Did  you?  Anyway,  I'll  have  it  in 
Jack  and  white.  The  minister  will  do  it." 

After  the  minister  was  gone  away,  Lis- 
ieth  said :  "  I  couldn't  very  well  approach 
dm.  He's  worried  about  money  for  the 
lew  vestry.  Why  didn't  you  tell  me  about 
he  new  vestry?  It  was  in  the  magazine." 

Olwen  mused  and  from  her  musings 
ame  this :  "  It'll  be  a  pity  to  spoil  it 
LOW.  For  Jennie's  sake." 

She  got  very  soft  pillows  and  clean  bed- 
lothes  for  Lisbeth  and  she  placed  tooth- 
ome  dishes  before  Lisbeth;  and  it  was 


26  MY    NEIGHBORS 

Lisbeth's  way  to  probe  with  a  fork  all  the 
dishes  that  Olwen  had  made  and  to  say 
"  It's  badly  burnt,"  or  "  You  didn't  give 
much  for  this,"  or  "  Of  course  you  were 
never  taught  to  cook." 

For  three  years  Olwen  endured  her 
sister's  taunts  and  the  storms  of  her  daugh- 
ter and  her  son-in-law;  and  then  Jennie 
said:  "I'm  going  to  have  a  baby."  If 
she  was  glad  and  feared  to  hear  this,  how 
much  greater  was  her  joy  and  how  much 
heavier  was  her  anxiety  as  Jennie's  space 
grew  narrower?  She  left  over  going  to  the 
aid  of  Lisbeth,  from  whom  she  took  away 
the  pillows  and  for  whom  she  did  not 
provide  any  more  toothsome  dishes;  she 
did  not  go  to  her  aid  howsoever  frantic 
the  beatings  on  the  wall  or  fierce  the  out- 
cry. Never  has  a  sentry  kept  a  closer  look- 
out than  Olwen  for  Jennie.  Albeit  Jennie 
died,  and  as  Olwen  looked  at  the  haii 
which  was  faded  from  the  hue  of  daffodils 
into  that  of  tow  and  at  the  face  the 
cream  of  the  skin  of  which  was  now  like 


LOVEANDHATE  27 

clay,  she  hated  Lisbeth  with  the  excess  that 
she  had  loved  her. 

"  My  dear  child  shall  go  to  Heaven  like 
i  Princess,"  she  said;  and  she  sat  at  her 
work  table  to  fashion  a  robe  of  fine  cam- 
bric and  lace  for  her  dead. 

Disturbed  by  the  noise  of  the  machine, 
Lisbeth  wailed :  "  You  let  me  starve  but 
ivon't  let  me  sleep.  Why  doesn't  any  one 
iclp  me?  I'll  get  the  fever.  What  have 
[  done?" 

Olwen  moved  to  the  doorway  of  the 
*oom,  her  body  filling  the  frame  thereof, 
icr  scissors  hanging  at  her  side. 

'  You  are  wrong,  sister,  to  starve  me," 
Lisbeth  said.  '  To  starve  me.  I  cannot 
valk  you  know.  You  must  not  blame 
ne  if  I  change  my  mind  about  my  money, 
[t  was  wrong  of  you." 

Olwen  did  not  answer. 

"  Dear  me,"  Lisbeth  cried,  "  supposing 
mr  father  in  Heaven  knew  how  you  treat 
ne.  Indeed  the  vestry  shall  have  my  bit. 
[  might  be  a  pig  in  a  pigsty.  I'll  get 


28  MY    NEIGHBORS 

the  fever.  Supposing  our  father  is  look- 
ing through  the  window  of  Heaven  at  your 
cruelty  to  me." 

Olwen  muttered  the  burden  of  her  care: 
" '  The  wife  would  pull  through  if  she  had 
plenty  of  attention.  How  could  she  with 
her  about?  The  two  of  you  killed  her. 
You  did.  I  warned  you  to  give  up  every- 
thing and  see  to  her.  But  you  neglected 
her.'  That's  what  Charlie  will  say.  Hoo- 
hoo.  '  It's  unheard  of  for  a  woman  to  die 
before  childbirth.  Serves  you  right  if  I 
have  an  inquest.'  ..." 

"  For  shame  to  keep  from  me  now,"  said 
Lisbeth  in  a  voice  that  was  higher  than 
the  continued  muttering  of  Olwen.  "  Have 
you  no  regard  for  the  living?  The  dead  is 
dead.  And  you  made  too  much  of  Jennie. 
You  spoiled  her.  ..." 

On  a  sudden  Olwen  ceased,  and  she 
strode  up  to  the  bed  and  thrust  her  scissors 
into  Lisbeth's  breast. 


ACCORDING   TO   THE   PATTERN 


II 

ACCORDING   TO   THE   PATTERN 

ON  the  eve  of  a  Communion  Sunday 
Simon  Idiot  espied  Dull  Anna  washing 
her  feet  in  the  spume  on  the  shore;  he 
came  out  of  his  hiding-place  and  spoke 
jestingly  to  Anna  and  enticed  her  into 
Blind  Cave,  where  he  had  sport  with  her. 
In  the  ninth  year  of  her  child,  whom  she 
had  called  Abel,  Anna  stretched  out  her 
tongue  at  the  schoolmaster  and  took  her 
son  to  the  man  who  farmed  Deinol. 

"  Brought  have  I  your  scarecrow,"  she 
said.  "  Give  you  to  me  the  brown  pen- 
nies that  you  will  pay  for  him." 

From  dawn  to  sunset  Abel  stood  on  a 
hedge,  waving  his  arms,  shouting,  and 
mimicking  the  sound  of  gunning. 
Weary  of  his  work  he  vowed  a  vow  that 
he  would  not  keep  on  at  it.  He  walked 
to  Morfa  and  into  his  mother's  cottage; 

31 


32  MY    NEIGHBORS 

his  mother  listened  to  him,  then  she  took  a 
stick  and  beat  him  until  he  could  not  rest 
nor  move  with  ease. 

"  Break  him  in  like  a  frisky  colt,  little 
man  bach," *  said  Anna  to  the  farmer. 
"  Know  you  he  is  the  son  of  Satan.  Have 
I  not  told  how  the  Bad  Man  came  to  me 
in  my  sound  sleep  and  was  naughty  with 
me?" 

But  the  farmer  had  compassion  on  Abel 
and  dealt  with  him  kindly,  and  when  Abel 
married  he  let  him  live  in  Tybach — the 
mud-walled,  straw-thatched,  two-roomed 
house  which  is  midway  on  the  hill  that 
goes  down  from  Synod  Inn  into  Morfa 
— and  he  let  him  farm  six  acres  of 
land. 

The  young  man  and  his  bride  so  labored 
that  the  people  thereabout  were  con- 
founded; they  stirred  earlier  and  lay  down 
later  than  any  honest  folk;  and  they  took 

1  Dear  little  man.  "  Bach  "  is  the  Welsh  masculine 
for  "  dear  ";  "  fach  "  the  Welsh  feminine  for  "  dear." 


ACCORDING    TO    PATTERN      33 

more  eggs  and  tubs  of  butter  to  market 
than  even  Deinol,  and  their  pigs  fattened 
wondrously  quick. 

Twelve  years  did  they  live  thus  wise. 
For  the  woman  these  were  years  of  toil 
and  child-bearing;  after  she  had  borne 
seven  daughters,  her  sap  husked  and 
dried  up. 

Now  the  spell  of  Abel's  mourning  was 
one  of  ill-fortune  for  Deinol,  the  master 
of  which  was  grown  careless:  hay  rotted 
before  it  was  gathered  and  corn  before  it 
was  reaped;  potatoes  were  smitten  by  a 
blight,  a  disease  fell  upon  two  cart-horses, 
and  a  heifer  was  drowned  in  the  sea. 
Then  the  farmer  felt  embittered,  and  by 
day  and  night  he  drank  himself  drunk  in 
the  inns  of  Morfa. 

Because  he  wanted  Deinol,  Abel  bright- 
ened himself  up:  he  wore  whipcord  leg- 
gings over  his  short  legs,  and  a  preacher's 
coat  over  his  long  trunk,  a  white  and  red 
patterned  celluloid  collar  about  his  neck, 
and  a  bowler  hat  on  the  back  of  his  head; 


34  MY    NEIGHBORS 

and  his  side-whiskers  were  trimmed  in  the 
shape  of  a  spade.  He  had  joy  of  many 
widows  and  spinsters,  to  each  of  whom  he 
said:  "There's  a  grief -livener  you  are," 
and  all  of  whom  he  gave  over  on  hearing 
of  the  widow  of  Drefach.  Her  he  mar- 
ried, and  with  the  money  he  got  with  her, 
and  the  money  he  borrowed,  he  bought 
Deinol.  Soon  he  was  freed  from  the 
hands  of  his  lender.  He  had  eight  horses 
and  twelve  cows,  and  he  had  oxen  and 
heifers,  and  pigs  and  hens,  and  he  had 
twenty-five  sheep  grazing  on  his  moor- 
land. As  his  birth  and  poverty  had  caused 
him  to  be  scorned,  so  now  his  gains  caused 
him  to  be  respected.  The  preacher  of 
Capel  Dissenters  in  Morfa  saluted  him  on 
the  tramping  road  and  in  shop,  and 
brought  him  down  from  the  gallery  to  the 
Big  Seat.  Even  if  Abel  had  land,  money, 
and  honor,  his  vessel  of  contentment  was 
not  filled  until  his  wife  went  into  her  death- 
bed and  gave  him  a  son. 

"  Indeed  me,"  he  cried,  "  Benshamin  his 


ACCORDING    TO    PATTERN      35 

name  shall  be.  The  Large  Maker  gives 
and  a  One  He  is  for  taking  away." 

He  composed  a  prayer  of  thankfulness 
and  of  sorrow;  and  this  prayer  he  recited 
to  the  congregation  which  gathered  at  the 
graveside  of  the  woman  from  Drefach. 

Benshamin  grew  up  in  the  way  of  Capel 
Dissenters.  He  slept  with  his  father  and 
ate  apart  from  his  sisters,  for  his  mien 
was  lofty.  At  the  age  of  seven  he  knew 
every  question  and  answer  in  the  book 
"  Mother's  Gift,"  with  sayings  from  which 
he  scourged  sinners;  and  at  the  age  of 
eight  he  delivered  from  memory  the  Book 
of  Job  at  the  Seiet;  at  that  age  also  he 
was  put  among  the  elders  in  the  Sabbath 
School. 

He  advanced,  waxing  great  in  religion. 
On  the  nights  of  the  Saying  and  Searching 
of  the  Word  he  was  with  the  cunningest 
men,  disputing  with  the  preacher,  stress- 
ing his  arguments  with  his  fingers,  and 
proving  his  learning  with  phrases  from 
the  sermons  of  the  saintly  Shones  Talysarn. 


36  MY    NEIGHBORS 

If  one  asked  him:  "What  are  you  go- 
ing, Ben  Abel  Deinol? "  he  always  an- 
swered :  "  The  errander  of  the  White  Gos- 
pel fach." 

His  father  communed  with  the  preacher, 
who  said :  "  Pity  quite  sinful  if  the  boy 
is  not  in  the  pulpit." 

"  Like  that  do  I  think  as  well  too," 
replied  Abel.  "  Eloquent  he  is.  Grand 
he  is  spouting  prayers  at  his  bed.  Weep 
do  I." 

Neighbors  neglected  their  fields  and 
barnyards  to  hear  the  lad's  shoutings  to 
God.  Once  Ben  opened  his  eyes  and  re- 
buked those  who  were  outside  his  room. 

"  Shamed  you  are,  not  for  certain,"  he 
said  to  them.  "  Come  in,  boys  Capel. 
Right  you  hear  the  Gospel  fach.  Young- 
ish am  I  but  old  is  my  courtship  of  King 
Jesus  who  died  on  the  tree  for  scamps  of 
parsons." 

He  shut  his  eyes  and  sang  of  blood, 
wood,  white  shirts,  and  thorns;  of  the 
throng  that  would  arise  from  the  burial- 


ACCORDING    TO    PATTERN      37 

ground,  in  which  there  were  more  graves 
than  molehills  in  the  shire.  He  cried 
against  the  heathenism  of  the  Church, 
the  wickedness  of  Church  tithes,  and 
against  ungodly  book-prayers  and  short 
sermons. 

Early  Ben  entered  College  Carmarthen, 
where  his  piety — which  was  an  adage — 
was  above  that  of  any  student.  Of  him 
this  was  said :  '  '  White  Jesus  bach  is  as 
plain  on  his  lips  as  the  purse  of  a  big 
bull.' " 

Brightness  fell  upon  him.  He  had  a 
name  for  the  tearfulness  and  splendor 
of  his  eloquence.  He  could  conduct  him- 
self fancifully:  now  he  was  Pharaoh  winc- 
ing under  the  plagues,  now  he  was  the 
Prodigal  Son  longing  to  eat  at  the  pigs' 
trough,  now  he  was  the  Widow  of  Nain 
rejoicing  at  the  recovery  of  her  son,  now 
he  was  a  parson  in  Nineveh  squirming 
under  the  prophecy  of  Jonah;  and  his 
hearers  winced  or  longed,  rejoiced  or 
squirmed.  Congregations  sought  him  to 


38  MY    NEIGHBORS 

preach  in  their  pulpits,  and  he  chose  such 
as  offered  the  highest  reward,  pledging 
the  richest  men  for  his  wage  and  the  cost 
of  his  entertainment  and  journey.  But 
Ben  would  rule  over  no  chapel.  "  I  wait 
for  the  call  from  above,"  he  said. 

His  term  at  Carmarthen  at  an  end,  he 
came  to  Deinol.  His  father  met  him  in 
a  doleful  manner. 

"  An  old  boy  very  cruel  is  the  Parson," 
Abel  whined.  "  Has  he  not  strained  Gwen 
for  his  tithes?  Auction  her  he  did  and 
bought  her  himself  for  three  pounds  and 
half  a  pound." 

Ben  answered :  "  Go  now  and  say  the 
next  Saturday  Benshamin  Lloyd  will  give 
mouthings  on  tithes  in  Capel  Dissenters." 

Ben  stood  in  the  pulpit,  and  spoke  to 
the  people  of  Capel  Dissenters. 

"  How  many  of  you  have  been  to  his 
church?"  he  cried.  "Not  one  male  bach 
or  one  female  fach.  Go  there  the  next 
Sabbath,  and  the  black  muless  will  not 
say  to  you :  '  Welcome  you  are,  persons 


ACCORDING    TO    PATTERN      39 

Capel.  But  there's  glad  am  I  to  see  you.' 
A  comic  sermon  you  will  hear.  A  ser- 
mon got  with  half-a-drown  postal  order. 
Ask  Postman.  Laugh  highly  you  will 
and  stamp  on  the  floor.  Funny  is  the 
Parson  in  the  white  frock.  Ach  y  fy, 
why  for  he  doesn't  have  a  coat  preacher 
like  Respecteds?  Ask  me  that.  From 
where  does  his  Church  come  from?  She 
is  the  inheritance  of  Satan.  The  only 
thing  he  had  to  leave,  and  he  left  her  to 
his  friends  the  parsons.  Iss-iss,  earnest 
affair  is  this.  Who  gives  him  his  food? 
We.  Who  pays  for  Vicarage?  We. 
Who  feeds  his  pony?  We.  His  cows? 
We.  Who  built  his  church?  We.  With 
stones  carted  from  our  quarries  and  mor- 
tar messed  about  with  the  tears  of  our 
mothers  and  the  blood  of  our  fathers." 

At  the  gate  of  the  chapel  men  discussed 
Ben's  words;  and  two  or  three  of  them 
stole  away  and  herded  Gwen  into  the 
corner  of  the  field;  and  they  caught  her 
and  cut  off  her  tail,  and  drove  a  staple 


40  MY    NEIGHBORS 

into  her  udder.  Sunday  morning  eleven 
men  from  Capel  Dissenters,  with  iron 
bands  to  their  clogs  on  their  feet,  and  white 
aprons  before  their  bellies,  shouted  with- 
out the  church:  "We  are  come  to  pray 
from  the  book."  The  Parson  was  af- 
frighted, and  left  over  tolling  his  bell,  and 
he  bolted  and  locked  the  door,  against 
which  he  set  his  body  as  one  would  set 
the  stub  of  a  tree. 

Running  at  the  top  of  their  speed  the 
railers  came  to  Ben,  telling  how  the  Parson 
had  put  them  to  shame. 

"  lobs  you  are,"  Ben  answered.  '  The 
boy  bach  who  loses  the  key  of  his  house 
breaks  into  his  house.  Does  an  old  wench 
bar  the  dairy  to  her  mishtress? " 

The  men  returned  each  to  his  abode,  and 
an  hour  after  midday  they  gathered  in 
the  church  burial-ground,  and  they  drew 
up  a  tombstone,  and  with  it  rammed  the 
door;  and  they  hurled  stones  at  the 
windows;  and  in  the  darkness  they  built 
a  wall  of  dung  in  the  room  of  the  door. 


ACCORDING    TO    PATTERN      41 

Repentance  sank  into  the  Parson  as  he 
saw  and  remembered  that  which  had  been 
done  to  him.  He  called  to  him  his  serv- 
ant Lissi  Workhouse,  and  her  he  told  to 
take  Gwen  to  Deinol.  The  cow  lowed 
woefully  as  she  was  driven;  she  was  heard 
even  in  Morfa,  and  many  hurried  to  the 
road  to  witness  her. 

Abel  was  at  the  going  in  of  the  close. 

"Well-well,  Lissi  Workhouse,"  he  said, 
"  what's  doing  then?  " 

'  Go  give  the  male  his  beast,'  mishtir 
talked." 

"  Right  for  you  are,"  said  Abel. 

"  Right  for  enough  is  the  rascal.  But  a 
creature  without  blemish  he  pilfered.  Hit 
her  and  hie  her  off." 

As  Lissi  was  about  to  go,  Ben  cried 
from  within  the  house:  '  The  cow  the 
fulbert  had  was  worth  two  of  his  cows." 

"  Sure,  iss-iss,"  said  Abel.  "  Go  will  I 
to  Vicarage  with  boys  capel.  Bring  the 
baston,  Ben  bach." 

Ben  came   out,   and  his   ardor  warmed 


42  MY    NEIGHBORS 

up  on  beholding  Lissi's  broad  hips,  scarlet 
cheeks,  white  teeth,  and  full  bosoms. 

"  Not  blaming  you,  girl  fach,  am  I,"  he 
said.  "  My  father,  journey  with  Gwen. 
Walk  will  I  with  Lissi  Workhouse." 

That  afternoon  Abel  brought  a  cow  in 
calf  into  his  close;  and  that  night  Ben 
crossed  the  mown  hayfields  to  the  Vicar- 
age, and  he  threw  a  little  gravel  at  Lissi's 
window. 

•  •••••  • 

The  hay  was  gathered  and  stacked  and 
thatched,  and  the  corn  was  cut  down,  and 
to  the  women  who  were  gleaning  his 
father's  oats,  Ben  said  how  that  Lissi  was 
in  the  family  way. 

"  Silence  your  tone,  indeed,"  cried  one, 
laughing.  "  No  sign  have  I  seen." 

"  If  I  died,"  observed  a  large  woman, 
"  boy  bach  pretty  innocent  you  are,  Ben- 
shamin.  Four  months  have  I  yet.  And 
not  showing  much  do  I." 

"  No,"  said  another,  "  the  bulk  might 
be  only  the  coil  of  your  apron,  ho-ho." 


ACCORDING    TO    PATTERN      43 

"  Whisper  to  us,"  asked  the  large 
woman,  "  who  the  foxer  is.  Keep  the 
news  will  we." 

"  Who  but  the  scamp  of  the  Par- 
son?" replied  Ben.  'What  a  sow  of  a 
hen." 

By  such  means  Ben  shifted  his  offense. 
On  being  charged  by  the  Parson  he  rushed 
through  the  roads  crying  that  the  enemy 
of  the  Big  Man  had  put  unbecoming 
words  on  a  harlot's  tongue.  Capel  Dis- 
senters believed  him.  "  He  could  not  act 
wrongly  with  a  sheep,"  some  said. 

So  Ben  tasted  the  sapidness  and  relish 
of  power,  and  his  desires  increased. 

"Mortgage  Deinol,  my  father  bach,"  he 
said  to  Abel.  "  Going  am  I  to  London. 
Heavy  shall  I  be  there.  None  of  the 
dirty  English  are  like  me." 

"  Already  have  I  borrowed  for  your 
college.  No  more  do  I  want  to  have. 
How  if  I  sell  a  horse?" 

"  Sell  you  the  horse  too,  my  father 
bach." 


44  MY    NEIGHBORS 

"  Done  much  have  I  for  you,"  Abel 
said.  "  Fairish  I  must  be  with  your 
sisters." 

'  Why  for  you  cavil  like  that,  father? 
The  money  of  mam  came  to  Deinol.  Am 
I  not  her  son?  " 

Though  his  daughters  murmured — 
"  We  wake  at  the  caw  of  the  crows,"  they 
said,  "  and  weary  in  the  young  of  the 
day " — Abel  obeyed  his  son,  who  there- 
upon departed  and  came  to  Thornton 
East  to  the  house  of  Catherine  Jenkins, 
a  widow  woman,  with  whom  he  took  the 
appearance  of  a  burning  lover. 

Though  he  preached  with  a  view  at 
many  English  chapels  in  London,  none 
called  him.  He  caused  Abel  to  sell  cattle 
and  mortgage  Deinol  for  what  it  was 
worth  and  to  give  him  all  the  money  he 
received  therefrom;  he  swore  such  hot 
love  for  Catherine  that  the  woman  pawned 
her  furniture  for  his  sake. 

Intrigued  that  such  scant  fruit  had  come 
up  from  his  sowings,  Ben  thought  of 


ACCORDING    TO    PATTERN      45 

further  ways  of  stablishing  himself.  He 
inquired  into  the  welfare  of  shop-assistants 
from  women  and  girls  who  worshiped  in 
Welsh  chapels,  and  though  he  spoiled 
several  in  his  quest,  the  abominations 
which  oppressed  these  workers  were  made 
known  to  him.  Shop-assistants  carried 
abroad  his  fame  and  called  him  "  Fiery 
Taffy."  Ben  showed  them  how  to  rid 
themselves  of  their  burden;  "a  burden," 
he  said,  "  packed  full  and  overflowing  by 
men  of  my  race — the  London  Welsh 
drapers." 

The  Welsh  drapers  were  alarmed,  and 
in  a  rage  with  Ben.  They  took  the  opin- 
.ion  of  their  big  men  and  performed  slyly. 
Enos-Harries — this  is  the  Enos-Harries 
who  has  a  drapery  shop  in  Kingsend — sent 
to  Ben  this  letter:  "  Take  Dinner  with  Slf 
and  Wife  same,  is  Late  Dinner  I  am 
pleased  to  inform.  You  we  don't  live  in 
Establishment  only  as  per  printed  Note 
Heading.  And  Oblige." 

Enos-Harries  showed  Ben  his  house,  and 


46  MY    NEIGHBORS 

told  him  the  cost  of  the  treasures  that 
were  therein. 

Also  Harries  said:  "I  have  learned  of 
you  as  a  promising  Welshman,  and  I  want 
to  do  a  good  turn  for  you  with  a  speech 
by  you  on  St.  David's  Day  at  Queen's 
Hall.  Now,  then." 

"  I  am  not  important  enough  for 
that." 

"  She'll  be  a  first-class  miting  in  tip- 
top speeches.  All  the  drapers  and  dairies 
shall  be  there  in  crowds.  Three  sirs  shall 
come." 

"  I  am  choked  with  engagements,"  said 
Ben.  "  I  am  preaching  very  busy  now 
just." 

"  Well-well.  Asked  I  did  for  you  are 
a  clean  Cymro  bach.  As  I  repeat,  only 
leading  lines  in  speakers  shall  be  there. 
Come  now  into  the  drawing-room  and 
I'll  give  you  an  intro  to  the  Missus  Enos- 
Harries.  In  evening  dress  she  is — chik 
Paris  Model.  The  invoice  price  was  ten- 
ten." 


ACCORDING    TO    PATTERN      47 

"  Wait  a  bit,"  Ben  remarked.  "  I  would 
be  glad  if  I  could  speak." 

"  Perhaps  the  next  time  we  give  you 
the  invite.  The  Cymrodorion  shall  be  in 
the  miting." 

"As  you  plead,  try  I  will." 

"  Stretching  a  point  am  I,"  Harries 
said.  '*  This  is  a  favor  for  you  to  address 
this  glorious  miting  where  the  Welsh 
drapers  will  attend  and  the  Missus  Enos- 
Harries  will  sing  '  Land  of  my  Fathers.' ' 

Ben  withdrew  from  his  fellows  for  three 
days,  and  on  the  third  day — which  was 
that  of  the  Saint — he  put  on  him  a  frock 
coat,  and  combed  down  his  mustache  over 
the  blood-red  swelling  on  his  lip;  and  he 
cleaned  his  teeth.  Here  are  some  of  the 
sayings  that  he  spoke  that  night: 

"  Half  an  hour  ago  we  were  privileged 
to  listen  to  the  voice  of  a  lovely  lady — a 
voice  as  clear  as  a  diamond  ring.  It  in- 
spired us  one  and  all  with  a  hireath  for 
the  dear  old  homeland — for  dear  Wales, 
for  the  land  of  our  fathers  and  mothers 


48  MY    NEIGHBORS 

too,  for  the  land  that  is  our  heritage  not 
by  Act  of  Parliament  but  by  the  Act  of 
God.  .  .  . 

"Who  ownss  this  land  to-day?  The 
squaire  and  the  parshon.  By  what  right? 
By  the  same  right  as  the  thief  who  steals 
your  silk  and  your  laces,  and  your  milk 
and  butter,  and  your  reddy-made  blousis. 
I  know  a  farm  of  one  hundred  acres,  each 
rod  having  been  tamed  from  heatherland 
into  a  manna  of  abundance.  Tamed  by 
human  bones  and  muscles — God's  invested 
capital  in  His  chosen  children.  Six 
months  ago  this  land — this  fertile  and 
rich  land — was  wrestled  away  from  the 
owners.  The  bones  of  the  living  and  the 
dead  were  wrestled  away.  I  saw  it  three 
months  ago — a  wylderness.  The  clod  had 
been  squeesed  of  its  zweat.  The  land 
belonged  to  my  father,  and  his  father, 
and  his  father,  back  to  countless  genera- 
tions. .  .  . 

"  I  am  proud  to  be  among  my  people 
to-night.  How  sorry  I  am  for  any  one 


ACCORDING    TO    PATTERN      49 

who  are  not  Welsh.  We  have  a  language 
as  ancient  as  the  hills  that  shelter  us,  and 
the  rivers  that  never  weery  of  refreshing 
us.  ... 

"  Only  recently  a  few  shop-assistants — 
a  handful  of  counter-jumpers — tried  to 
shake  the  integrity  of  our  commerse.  But 
their  white  cuffs  held  back  their  aarms, 
and  the  white  collars  choked  their  aambi- 
tions.  When  I  was  a  small  boy  my  mam 
used  to  tell  me  how  the  chief  Satan  was 
caught  trying  to  put  his  hand  over  the  sun 
so  as  to  give  other  satans  a  chance  of  doing 
wrong  on  earth  in  the  dark.  That  was 
the  object  of  these  misguided  fools.  They 
had  no  grievances.  I  have  since  investi- 
gated the  questions  of  living-in  and  fines. 
Both  are  fair  and  necessary.  The  man  who 
tries  to  destroy  them  is  like  the  swimmer 
who  plunges  among  the  water  lilies  to  be 
dragged  into  destruction.  .  .  . 

'  Welsh  was  talked  in  the  Garden  of 
Aden.  That  is  where  commerse  began. 
Didn't  Eve  buy  the  apple?  .  .  . 


50  MY    NEIGHBORS 

"  Ladies  and  gentlemen,  Cymrodorion, 
listen.  There  is  a  going  in  these  classical 
old  rafterss.  It  is  the  coming  of  God. 
^.nd  the  message  He  gives  you  this  night 
is  this :  '  Men  of  Gwalia,  march  on  and 
keep  you  tails  up.' ' 

From  that  hour  Ben  flourished.  He 
broke  his  league  with  the  shop-assistants. 
Those  whom  he  had  troubled  lost  courage 
and  humbled  themselves  before  their  em- 
ployers; but  their  employers  would  have 
none  of  them,  man  or  woman,  boy  or  girl. 

Vexation  followed  his  prosperity.  His 
father  reproached  him,  writing:  "  Sad  I 
drop  into  the  Pool  as  old  Abel  Tybach,  and 
not  as  Lloyd  Deinol."  Catherine  harassed 
him  to  recover  her  house  and  chattels.  To 
these  complainings  he  was  deaf.  He  mar- 
ried the  daughter  of  a  wealthy  English- 
man, who  set  him  up  in  a  large  house  in 
the  midst  of  a  pleasure  garden;  and  of 
the  fatness  and  redness  of  his  wife  he  was 
sickened  before  he  was  wedded  to  her. 

By  studying  diligently,  the  English  Ian- 


ACCORDING    TO    PATTERN      51 

guage  became  as  familiar  to  him  as  the 
Welsh  language.  He  bound  himself  to 
Welsh  politicians  and  engaged  himself  in 
public  affairs,  and  soon  he  was  as  an  idol 
to  a  multitude  of  people,  who  were  sensi- 
ble only  to  his  well-sung  words,  and  who 
did  not  know  that  his  utterances  veiled 
his  own  avarice  and  that  of  his  masters. 
All  that  he  did  was  for  profit,  and  yet 
he  could  not  win  enough. 

Men  and  women,  soothed  into  false  ease 
and  quickened  into  counterfeit  wrath,  com- 
mended him,  crying:  "  Thank  God  for  Ben 
Lloyd."  Such  praise  puffed  him  up,  and 
howsoever  mighty  he  was  in  the  view  of 
fools,  he  was  mightier  in  his  own  view. 

"  At  the  next  election  I'll  be  in  Parlia- 
ment," he  boasted  in  his  vanity.  ;c  The 
basis  of  my  solidity — strength — is  as  im- 
movable— is  as  impregnable  as  Birds'  Rock 
in  Morfa." 

Though  the  grandson  of  Simon  Idiot 
and  Dull  Anna  prophesied  great  things 
for  himself,  it  was  evil  that  came  to  him. 


52  MY    NEIGHBORS 

He  trembled  from  head  to  foot  to  ravish 
every  comely  woman  on  whom  his  ogling 
eyes  dwelt.  His  greed  made  him  faithless 
to  those  whom  he  professed  to  serve:  in 
his  eagerness  to  lift  himself  he  planned, 
plotted,  and  trafficked  with  the  foes  of  his 
officers.  Hearing  that  an  account  of  his 
misdeeds  was  spoken  abroad,  he  called  the 
high  London  Welshmen  into  a  room,  and 
he  said  to  them: 

"  These  cruel  slanderers  have  all  but 
broken  my  spirit.  They  are  the  wicked 
inventions  of  fiends  incarnate.  It  is  not 
my  fall  that  is  required — if  that  were  so 
I  would  gladly  make  the  sacrifise — the 
zupreme  sacrifise,  if  wanted — but  it  is  the 
fall  of  the  Party  that  these  men  are  after. 
He  who  repeats  one  foul  thing  is  doing 
his  level  best  to  destroy  the  fabric  of  this 
magnificent  organisation  that  has  been 
reared  by  your  brains.  It  has  no  walls 
of  stone  and  mortar,  yet  it  is  a  sity  builded 
by  men.  We  must  have  no  more  bicker- 
ings. We  have  work  to  do.  The  seeds 


ACCORDING    TO    PATTERN      53 

are  springing  forth,  and  a  goodly  harvest 
is  promised:  let  us  sharpen  our  blades 
and  clear  our  barn  floors.  Cymru  fydd — 
Wales  for  the  Welsh — is  here.  At  home 
and  at  Westminster  our  kith  and  kin 
are  occupying  prominent  positions.  Dis- 
establishment is  at  hand.  We  have  closed 
public-houses  and  erected  chapels,  each 
chapel  being  a  factor  in  the  education  of 
the  masses  in  ideas  of  righteous  govern- 
ment. You,  my  friends,  have  secured 
much  of  the  land,  around  which  you  have 
made  walls,  and  in  which  you  have  set 
water  fountains,  and  have  planted  rare 
plants  and  flowers.  And  you  have  put  up 
your  warning  signs  on  it — *  Trespassers 
will  be  prosecuted.' 

'  There  is  coming  the  Registration  of 
Workers  Act,  by  which  every  worker  will 
be  held  to  his  locality,  to  his  own  enormous 
advantage.  And  it  will  end  strikes,  and 
trades  unionism  will  deservedly  crumble. 
In  future  these  men  will  be  able  to  settle 
down,  and  with  God's  blessing  bring  chil- 


54  MY    NEIGHBORS 

dren  into  the  world,  and  their  condition 
will  be  a  delight  unto  themselves  and  a 
profit  to  the  community. 

"  But  we  must  do  more.  I  must  do 
more.  And  you  must  help  me.  We 
must  stand  together.  Slander  never 
creates;  it  shackles  and  kills.  We  must 
be  solid.  Midway  off  the  Cardigan  coast 
— in  beautiful  Morfa — there  is  a  rock — 
Birds'  Rock.  As  a  boy  I  used  to  climb  to 
the  top  of  it,  and  watch  the  waters  swirl- 
ing and  tumbling  about  it,  and  around  it 
and  against  it.  But  I  was  unafraid.  For 
I  knew  that  the  rock  was  old  when  man 
was  young,  and  that  it  had  braved  all 
the  washings  of  the  sea." 

The  men  congratulated  Ben;  and  Ben 
came  home  and  he  stood  at  a  mirror, 
and  shaping  his  body  put  out  his  arms. 

"  How's  this  for  my  maiden  speech  in 
the  house  ? "  he  asked  his  wife.  Pres- 
ently he  paused.  "You're  a  fine  one  to 
be  an  M.  P.'s  lady,"  he  said.  "  You  stout, 
underworked  fool." 

Ben   urged   on  his   imaginings:   he   ad- 


ACCORDING    TO    PATTERN      55 

vised  his  monarch,  and  to  him  for  favors 
merchants  brought  their  gold,  and  mothers 
their  daughters.  Winter  and  spring 
moved,  and  then  his  mind  brought  his 
enemies  to  his  door. 

"  As  the  root  of  a  tree  spreads  in  the 
bosom  of  the  earth,"  he  said,  "  so  my  fame 
shall  spread  over  the  world  " ;  and  he  built 
a  fence  about  his  house. 

But  his  mind  would  not  be  stilled. 
Every  midnight  his  enemies  were  at  the 
fence,  and  he  could  not  sleep  for  the 
dreadful  outcry;  every  midnight  he  arose 
from  his  bed  and  walked  aside  the  fence, 
testing  the  strength  of  it  with  a  hand  and 
a  shoulder  and  shooing  away  his  enemies 
as  one  does  a  brood  of  chickens  from  a 
cornfield. 

His  fortieth  summer  ran  out — a  season 
of  short  days  and  nights  speeding  on  the 
heels  of  night.  Then  peace  fell  upon  him; 
and  at  dusk  of  a  day  he  came  into  his 
room,  and  he  saw  one  sitting  in  a  chair. 
He  went  up  to  the  chair  and  knelt  on  a 
knee,  and  said:  "Your  Majesty  ..." 


THE  TWO  APOSTLES 


Ill 

THE  TWO  APOSTLES 

GOD  covered  sun,  moon,  and  stars,  stilled 
the  growing  things  of  the  earth  and  dried 
up  the  waters  on  the  face  of  the  earth, 
and  stopped  the  roll  of  the  world;  and 
He  fixed  upon  a  measure  of  time  in  which 
to  judge  the  peoples,  this  being  the 
measure  which  was  spoken  of  as  the  Day 
of  Judgment. 

In  the  meanseason  He  summoned  Satan 
to  the  Judgment  Hall,  which  is  at  the 
side  of  the  river  that  breaks  into  four  heads, 
and  above  which,  its  pulpits  stretching  be- 
yond the  sky,  is  the  Palace  of  White 
Shirts,  and  below  which,  in  deep  dark- 
nesses, are  the  frightful  regions  of  the 
Fiery  Oven.  "  Give  an  account  of  your 
rule  in  the  face  of  those  whom  you  pro- 
voked to  mischief,"  He  said  to  Satan. 
"  My  balance  hitched  to  a  beam  will  weigh 

59 


60  MY    NEIGHBORS 

the  good  and  evil  of  my  children,  and  if 
good  is  heavier  than  evil,  I  shall  lighten 
your  countenance  and  clothe  you  with  the 
robes  of  angels." 

"Awake  the  dead"  He  bade  the 
Trumpeter,  and  "  Lift  the  lids  off  the 
burying-places  "  He  bade  the  laborers.  In 
their  generations  were  they  called ;  "  for," 
said  the  Lord,  "  good  and  evil  are  customs 
of  a  period  and  when  the  period  is  passed 
and  the  next  is  come,  good  may  be  evil  and 
evil  may  be  good." 

Now  God  did  not  put  His  entire  trust 
in  Satan,  and  in  the  evening  of  the  day 
He  set  to  prove  him:  "  It  is  over." 

"  My  Lord,  so  be  it,"  answered  Satan. 

"  How  now?  "  asked  God. 

'  The  scale  of  wickedness  sways  like  a 
kite  in  the  wind,"  cried  Satan.  "  Give  me 
my  robes  and  I  will  transgress  again'st  you 
no  more." 

"In  the  Book  of  Heaven  and  Hell," 
said  God,  "  there  is  no  writing  of  the  last 
of  the  Welsh." 


THE    TWO   APOSTLES  61 

Satan  spoke  up:  "My  Lord,  your 
pledge  concerned  those  judged  on  the  Day 
of  Judgment.  Day  is  outing.  The  win- 
dows of  the  Mansion  are  lit;  hark  the 
angels  tuning  their  golden  strings  for  the 
cheer  of  the  Resurrection  Supper.  Give 
me  my  robes  that  I  may  sing  your 
praises." 

"  Can  I  not  lengthen  the  day  with  a 
wink  of  my  eye?  " 

"  All  things  you  can  do,  my  Lord,  but 
observe  your  pledge  to  me.  Allow  these 
people  to  rest  a  while  longer.  Their  num- 
ber together  with  the  number  of  their  sins 
is  fewer  than  the  hairs  on  Elisha's  head." 

God  laughed  in  His  heart  as  He  replied 
to  Satan:  "Tell  the  Trumpeter  to  take 
his  horn  and  the  laborers  their  spades  and 
bring  to  me  the  Welsh." 

The  laborers  digged,  and  at  the  sound 
of  the  horn  the  dead  breathed  and  heaved. 
Those  whose  wit  was  sharp  hurried  into 
neighboring  chapels  and  stole  Bibles  and 
hymn-books,  with  which  in  their  pockets 


62  MY    NEIGHBORS 

and  under  their  arms  they  joined  the  host 
in  Heaven's  Courtyard,  whence  they  went 
into  the  Waiting  Chamber  that  is  without 
the  Judgment  Hall. 

"  Boy  bach,  a  lot  of  Books  of  the  Word 
he  has,"  a  woman  remarked  to  the  Re- 
spected Towy-Watkins.  "  Say  him  I  have 
one." 

"  Happy  would  I  be  to  do  like  that," 
was  the  reply.  "  But,  female,  much  does 
the  Large  One  regard  His  speeches.  What 
is  the  text  on  the  wall  ?  '  Prepare  your 
deeds  for  the  Lord.'  The  Beybile  is  the 
most  religious  deed.  Farewell  for  now," 
and  he  pretended  to  go  away. 

Holding  the  sleeve  of  his  White  Shirt, 
the  woman  separated  her  toothless  gums 
and  fashioned  her  wrinkled  face  in  grief. 
"  Two  tens  he  has,"  she  croaked.  "  And 
his  shirt  is  clean.  Dirty  am  I;  buried  I 
was  as  I  was  found,  and  the  shovelers 
beat  the  soil  through  the  top  of  the  coffin. 
Do  much  will  I  for  one  Beybile." 

"  A   poor   dab    you    are,"    said    Towy. 


THE    TWO   APOSTLES  63 

"Many  deeds  you  have?  But  no  odds 
to  me." 

"  Four  I  have." 

"  Woe  for  you,  unfortunate." 

"  Iss-iss,  horrid  is  my  plight,"  the  woman 
whined.  "  Little  I  did  for  Him." 

"  Don't  draw  tears.  For  eternity  you'll 
weep.  Here  is  a  massive  Beybile  for  your 
four  deeds." 

"  Take  him  one.  Handy  will  three  be 
in  the  minute  of  the  questioning." 

"  Refusing  the  Beybile  bach  you  are. 
Also  the  hymn-book — old  and  new  nota- 
tions— I  present  for  four.  Stupid  am  I 
as  the  pigger's  prentice  who  bought  the 
litter  in  the  belly." 

"  Be  him  soft  and  sell  for  one." 

"  I  cannot  say  less.  No  relation  you  are 
to  me.  Hope  I  do  that  right  enough  are 
your  four.  Recite  them  to  me,  old 
woman." 

"  I  ate  rats  to  provide  a  Beybile  to 
the  Respected,"  the  woman  trembled. 


64  MY    NEIGHBORS 

"  You  are  pathetic,"  Towy  said.  "  Hie 
and  get  your  tokens  and  have  that  poor 
one  will  I  because  of  my  pity  for  you." 

The  woman  told  her  deeds  in  Heaven's 
Record  Office,  and  she  was  given  four 
white  tablets  on  which  her  deeds  were  in- 
scribed; and  the  rat  tablet  Towy  took  from 
her.  "  Faith  and  hope  are  tidy  heifers," 
he  said,  "  but  a  stallion  is  charity.  Price- 
less Beybile  I  give  you,  sinner." 

As  he  moved  away  Towy  cried  in  the 
manner  of  one  selling  by  auction :  "  This 
is  the  beloved  Beybile  of  Jesus.  This  is 
the  book  of  hymns — old  and  new  nota- 
tions. Hymns  harvest,  communion,  fu- 
nerals, Sunday  schools,  and  hymns  for 
children  bach  are  here.  Treasures  bulky 
for  certain." 

For  some  he  received  three  tablets  each, 
for  some  five  tablets  each,  and  for  some 
ten  tablets  each.  But  the  gaudy  Bible 
which  was  decorated  with  pictures  and 
ornamented  with  brass  clasps  and  a  leather 
covering  he  did  not  sell;  nor  did  he  sell 


THE    TWO   APOSTLES  65 

the  gilt-edged  hymn-book.  Between  the 
leaves  of  his  Bible  he  put  his  tablets — 
as  a  preacher  his  markers — the  writing 
on  each  tablet  confirming  a  verse  in  the 
place  it  was  set.  His  labor  over,  he 
chanted:  "Pen  Calvaria!  Pen  Calvaria! 
Very  soon  will  come  to  view."  Men  and 
women  gazed  upon  him,  envying  him; 
and  those  who  had  Bibles  and  hymn-books 
hastened  to  do  as  he  had  done. 

Among  the  many  that  came  to  him  was 
one  whose  name  was  Ben  Lloyd. 

"  Dear  me,"  said  Towy. 

"  Dear  me,"  said  Ben. 

"  Fat  is  my  religion  after  the  spring- 
ing," cried  Towy.  "  Perished  was  I  and 
up  again.  Amen,  Big  Man.  Amen  and 
amen.  And  amen. 

"  I  opened  my  eyes  and  I  saw  a  hand 
thrusting  aside  the  firmament  and  I  heard 
One  calling  me  from  the  beyond,  and  the 
One  was  God." 

"  Like  the  roar  of  heated  bulls  was  the 
noise,  Ben  bach." 


66  MY    NEIGHBORS 

"  Praise  Him  I  did  that  I  was  laid  to 
rest  at  home.  Away  from  the  stir  of  Par- 
liament. Tell  Him  I  will  how  my  spirit, 
though  the  flesh  was  dead,  bathed  in  the 
living  rivers  and  walked  in  the  peaceful 
valleys  of  the  glorious  land  of  my  fathers 
— thinking,  thinking  of  Jesus." 

"Hold  on.  Not  so  fast.  From  Capel 
Bryn  Salem  I  journeyed  to  mouth  with 
my  heart  to  the  Lord,  and  your  slut  of 
widow  paid  me  only  four  soferens.  Elo- 
quent sermon  I  spouted  and  four  soferens 
is  the  price  of  a  supply." 

"In  your  charity  forgive  her;  her  sor- 
row was  o'erpowering." 

"Sorrow!  The  mule  of  an  English! 
She  wasn't  there." 

i  "You  don't  say,"  cried  Ben.  "If 
above  she  is  I  will  have  her  dragged 
down." 

"  Not  a  stone  did  she  put  over  your 
head,  and  the  strumpets  of  your  sisters 
did  not  tend  your  grave.  Why  you  were 
not  eaten  by  worms  I  can't  know." 


THE    TWO   APOSTLES  67 

On  a  sudden  Towy  shouted:  "  See  an 
old  parson  do  I.  Is  not  this  the  day  of 
rising  up?  Awful  if  the  Big  Man  mis- 
takes us  for  the  Church.  Not  been  inside 
a  church  have  I,  drop  dead  and  blind, 
since  I  was  born." 

None  gave  heed  to  his  cry,  for  the  sound 
of  the  bargaining  was  most  high.  "  Dis- 
senters," he  bellowed,  "  what  right  have 
Church  heathens  to  mix  with  us?  The 
Fiery  Oven  is  their  home." 

The  people  were  dismayed.  Their  num- 
ber being  small,  the  Church  folk  were 
pressed  one  upon  the  other;  and  after 
they  were  thrown  in  a  mass  against  the 
gate  of  the  Chariot  House  the  Dissenters 
spread  themselves  easily  as  far  as  the  door 
of  the  Crooked  Stairway. 

"  Now,  boys  capel,"  Towy-Watkins 
said,  "  we  will  have  a  sermon.  Fine  will 
Welsh  be  in  the  nostrils  of  the  Big 
Preacher.  Pray  will  I  at  once." 

The  prayer  ended,  and  one  struck  his 
tuning-fork;  and  while  the  congregation 


68  MY    NEIGHBORS 

moaned  and  lamented,  a  tall  man,  who 
wore  the  habit  of  a  preacher  and  whose 
yellow  beard — the  fringe  of  which  was 
singed — hung  over  his  breast  like  a  sheaf 
of  wheat,  passed  through  the  way  of  the 
door  of  the  Stairway,  and  as  he  walked 
towards  the  Judgment  Hall,  some  said: 
"  Fair  day,  Respected,"  and  some  said : 
"  Similar  he  is  to  Towy-Watkins." 

"  Shut  your  throats,  colts,"  Towy  re- 
buked the  people.  "Say  after  me:  'Go 
round  my  backhead,  Satan.' ' 

"  Go  round  my  backhead,  Satan,"  the 
people  obeyed. 

"  Catch  him  and  skin  him,"  Towy 
screamed.  ;<  Teach  him  we  will  to  snook 
about  here." 

Fear  arming  his  courage,  Satan  shouted: 
"  He  who  hurts  me  him  shall  I  pitch  head- 
long to  the  flames."  The  people's  hands 
went  to  their  sides,  and  Satan  departed 
in  peace. 

"  In  my  heart  is  my  head,"  Towy  said. 
"  Near  the  Oven  we  are.  Blow  your  noses 


THE    TWO   APOSTLES  69 

of  the  stench.  Young  youths,  herd  block- 
heads Church  over  here." 

Before  the  stalwarts  started  on  their 
errand,  the  Overseer  of  the  Waiting 
Chamber  came  to  the  door  of  the  lane 
that  takes  you  into  the  Judgment  Hall, 
wherefore  the  Dissenters  wept,  howled, 
and  whooped. 

"  Ready  am  I,  God  bach,"  Towy  ex- 
claimed, stretching  his  hairy  arms.  '  Take 
me." 

"  Patiently  I  waited  for  the  last  Trump 
and  humbly  do  I  now  wait  for  the  Crown 
from  your  fingers,"  said  Ben  Lloyd.  "  My 
deeds  are  recorded  in  the  archives  of  the 
House  of  Commons  and  the  Cymrodorion 
Society." 

"  Clap  up,"  Towy  admonished  Ben. 
"  My  religious  actions  can't  be  counted." 

Lowering  his  eyes  the  Overseer  mur- 
mured: "  I  am  not  the  Lord." 

"  For  why  did  you  not  say  that? "  cried 
Towy.  He  stepped  to  the  Overseer. 
"  Hap  you  are  Apostle  Shames.  A  splen- 


70  MY    NEIGHBORS 

did  photo  of  Shames  is  in  the  Beybile  with 
pictures.  Fond  am  I  of  preaching  from 
him.  Lovely  pieces  there  are.  '  Abram 
believed  God.'  Who  was  Abram?  Father 
of  Isaac  bach.  Who  made  Abram?  The 
Big  Man.  And  the  Big  Man  made  the 
capel  and  the  respected  that  is  the  jewel 
of  the  capel.  Is  not  the  pulpit  the  throne? 
Glad  am  I  to  see  you,  indeed,  Shames." 

The  Overseer  opened  his  lips. 

"  Enter  with  you  will  I,"  said  Towy. 
"  Look  through  my  glassy  soul  you  can." 

"  Silence "  the  Overseer  began. 

"  Iss,  silence  for  ever  and  ever,  amen," 
said  Towy.  "  No  trial  I  need.  How  can 
the  Judge  judge  if  there's  no  judging  to 
be?  Go  up  will  I  then.  Hope  to  see  you 
again,  Shames." 

The  Overseer  tightened  his  girdle. 
;<  Thus  saith  the  Lord,"  he  proclaimed : 
"  *I  will  consider  each  by  his  deeds  or  all 
by  the  deeds  of  their  two  apostles.' ' 

"Ho-ho,"  said  Towy.  "Half  one  mo- 
ment. Think  will  we.  Dissenters,  crowd 


THE    TWO   APOSTLES  71 

here.  Ben  Lloyd,  make  arguments. 
Tricky  is  old  Shames." 

The  Dissenters  assembled  close  to  Ben 
and  Towy,  and  the  Church  people  crept 
near  them  in  order  to  share  their  counsel; 
but  the  Dissenters  turned  upon  their 
enemies  and  bruised  them  with  fists  and 
Bibles  and  hymn-books,  and  called  them 
frogs,  turks,  thieves,  atheists,  blacks;  and 
there  never  has  been  heard  such  a  tumult 
in  any  house.  Alarmed  that  he  could  not 
part  one  side  from  the  other,  the  Overseer 
sought  Satan,  who  had  a  name  for  crafty 
dealings  with  disputants. 

Satan  was  distressed.  "  If  it  was  not 
for  personal  reasons,"  he  said,  "  I  would 
let  them  go  to  Hell."  He  sent  into  the 
Chamber  a  carpenter  who  put  a  barrier 
from  wall  to  wall,  and  he  appointed  Jude 
in  charge  of  the  barrier  to  guard  that  no 
one  went  under  it  or  over  it. 

Then  the  wise  men  of  the  Dissenters 
continued  to  examine  the  Lord's  offer; 
and  a  thousand  men  declared  they  were 


72  MY    NEIGHBORS 

holy  enough  to  go  before  God,  and  from 
the  thousand  five  hundred  were  cast  out, 
and  from  the  five  hundred  three  hundred, 
and  from  the  two  hundred  one  hundred 
were  cast  away.  Now  this  hundred  were 
Baptists,  Methodists,  and  Congregation- 
alists,  and  they  quarreled  so  harshly  and 
decried  one  another  so  spitefully  that  Ben 
and  Towy  made  with  them  a  compact  to 
speak  specially  for  each  of  them  in  the 
private  ear  of  God.  The  strife  quelled  and 
Towy  having  cried  loudly:  "Dissenters 
and  Churchers,  glad  you  are  that  me  and 
Ben  Lloyd,  Hem  Pee,  are  your  apostles," 
he  and  Ben  followed  the  Overseer. 

In  the  Judgment  Hall  the  two  apostles 
crouched  to  pray,  and  they  were  stirred 
by  Satan  laying  his  hands  on  their 
shoulders. 

"  Prayers  are  useless  here,  my  friends," 
said  the  Devil.  "  We  must  proceed  with 
the  business.  I  am  just  as  anxious  as 
you  are  that  everything  reaches  a  satis- 
factory conclusion." 


THE    TWO   APOSTLES  73 

"  I  object,"  said  Ben.  "  Solemnly  ob- 
ject. I  don't  know  this  infidel.  I  don't 
want  to  know  him." 

"  Go  from  here,"  Towy  gruntled.  "  A 
sweat  is  in  my  whiskers.  Inhabitants,  why 
isn't  his  tongue  a  red-hot  poker?  .  .  . 
Well,  boys  Palace,  grand  this  is.  Say 
who  you  are? "  he  asked  one  whose  face 
shone  like  a  mirror.  "  Respected  Towy- 
Watkins  am  I." 

He  whose  face  shone  like  a  polished 
mirror  answered  that  he  was  Moses  the 
Keeper  of  the  Balance.  '  The  Lord  is  in 
the  Cloud,"  he  said. 

Towy  addressed  the  Cloud,  which  was 
the  breadth  of  a  man's  hand,  and  which 
was  brighter  than  the  golden  halo  of  the 
throne:  "Big  Man,  peep  at  your  helper. 
Was  not  I  a  ruler  over  the  capel?  Re- 
ligious were  my  prayers." 

"  I  did  not  hear  any,"  said  God. 

"  Mistake.  Mistake.  Towy  bach  elo- 
quent was  I  called.  Here  am  I  with  the 
Speech,  and  the  Speech  is  God  and  God 


74  MY    NEIGHBORS 

is  the  Speech.  Take  you  as  a  great  gift 
this  nice  hymn-book." 

"  What  are  hymns?  "  asked  God. 

"  Moses,  Moses,"  cried  Towy,  "  explain 
affairs  to  Him." 

God  spoke:  "  Satan,  render  your  ac- 
count of  the  mischief  you  made  these 
men  do." 

:<  This  is  a  travesty  of  the  traditions 
of  the  House,"  said  Ben.  *  Traditions 
that  are  dear  to  me,  being  taught  them 
at  my  mother's  knees.  I  refuse  to  be 
drenched  in  Satan's  froth.  Against  one 
who  was  a  member  of  the  Government 
you  are  taking  the  evidence  of  the  most 
discredited  man  in  the  universe — the 
world's  worst  sinner." 

He  ceased,  because  Satan  had  begun  to 
read;  and  Satan  read  rapidly,  with  shame, 
and  without  pantomime,  not  pausing  at 
what  times  he  was  abused  and  charged 
with  lying;  and  he  read  correctly,  for  the 
Records  Clerk  followed  him  word  by  word 
in  the  Book  of  the  Watchers ;  and  for  every 


THE    TWO   APOSTLES  75 

sin  to  which  he  confessed  Moses  placed  a 
scarlet  tablet  in  the  scale  of  wickedness. 

"  I  will  attend  to  what  I  have  heard," 
said  the  Lord  when  Satan  had  finished. 
"  Put  your  tablets  in  the  scale  and  go 
into  the  Chamber." 

Ben  and  Towy  withdrew,  and  as  they 
passed  out  they  beheld  that  the  scale  of 
scarlet  tablets  touched  the  ground. 

Then  the  Cloud  vanished  and  God  came 
out  of  the  Cloud. 

"  My  wrath  is  fierce,"  He  said.  "  Bind 
these  Welsh  and  torment  them  with  vipers 
and  with  fire  in  the  uttermost  parts  of 
Hell.  They  shall  have  no  more  remem- 
brance before  me." 

'  Will  you  destroy  the  just?"  asked 
Moses. 

'  They  have  chosen." 

"  Shall  the  godly  perish  because  of  the 
godless  ? " 

"  I  flooded  the  world,"  said  God. 

'  The  righteous  Noah  and  his  house  and 
his  animals  you  did  not  destroy.  And 


76  MY    NEIGHBORS 

you  repented  that  you  smote  every  living 
thing.  May  not  my  Lord  repent  again? " 

"  I  am  not  destroying  every  living 
thing,"  God  replied.  "  I  am  destroying 
the  vile." 

"  Remember  Sodom  and  Gomorrah, 
Lot's  wife  and  his  daughters.  They  all 
sinned  after  their  deliverance.  The  doings 
of  Sodom  stayed." 

Moses  also  said :  ' '  You  gave  your  ear 
to  Jonah  from  the  well  of  the  sea." 

"  I  sacrificed  my  Son  for  man." 

"  And  loosed  Satan  upon  him." 

"  Is  scarlet  white?  "  asked  God. 

"  Is  justice  the  fruit  of  injustice?  The 
two  men  were  not  of  the  Church,  and  the 
Church  may  be  holy  in  your  sight." 

"  I  have  judged." 

"  And  your  judgment  is  past  under- 
standing," said  Moses,  and  he  sat  at  the 
Balance. 

The  servants  of  the  Lord  spoke  one 
with  another:  "  I  cannot  eat  of  the  sup- 
per," said  one;  "The  songs  will  be  as  a 


THE    TWO   APOSTLES  77 

wolf's  bowlings  in  the  wilderness,"  said 
another ;  "  The  honey  will  be  as  bitter- 
sweet as  Adam's  apple,"  said  a  third. 
But  Satan  exclaimed:  "Come,  let  us  seek 
in  the  Book  of  the  Watchers  for  an  act 
that  will  turn  Him  from  His  purpose." 

In  seeking,  some  put  their  fingers  on 
the  leaves  and  advised  Moses  to  cry  unto 
the  Lord  in  such  and  such  a  manner. 

"  My  voice  is  dumb,"  replied  Moses. 

Satan  presently  astonished  the  servants; 
he  took  the  book  to  the  Lord.  "  My 
Lord,"  he  said,  "  which  is  the  more  precious 
— good  or  evil?  " 

"  Good,"  said  the  Lord. 

"  More  precious  than  the  riches  of  Sol- 
omon is  a  deed  done  in  your  name?  " 

"  Yes." 

'  Though  the  sins  were  as  numerous  as 
the  teeth  of  a  shoal  of  fish? " 

"  So.    Unravel  your  riddle." 

"  An  old  woman  of  the  Dissenters,"  said 
Satan,  "  claimed  four  tablets,  whereas  her 
deeds  were  nine." 


78  MY    NEIGHBORS 

God  looked  at  the  Balance  and  lo,  the 
scale  of  white  tablets  was  heavier  than  the 
scale  of  scarlet  tablets. 

"  Bid  hither  the  apostles,"  He  com- 
manded the  Overseer,  "  for  they  shall  see 
me,  and  this  day  they  and  their  flocks  shall 
be  in  Paradise." 

Satan  stood  before  the  face  of  Moses, 
glowing  as  the  angels;  and  he  brought  out 
scissors  to  clip  off  the  fringe  of  his  beard. 
When  he  had  cut  only  a  little,  the  Overseer 
entered  the  Judgment  Hall,  saying:  "  The 
two  apostles  tricked  Jude  and  crawled 
under  the  barrier,  and  they  shot  back  the 
bolts  of  the  gate  of  the  Chariot  House  and 
called  a  charioteer  to  take  them  to  Heaven. 
'  This  is  God's  will,'  they  said  to  him." 

Satan's  scissors  fell  on  the  floor. 


EARTHBRED 


IV 
EARTHBRED 

BECAUSE  he  was  diseased  with  a  consump- 
tion, Evan  Roberts  in  his  thirtieth  year 
left  over  being  a  drapery  assistant  and 
had  himself  hired  as  a  milk  roundsman. 

A  few  weeks  thereafter  he  said  to  Mary, 
the  woman  whom  he  had  promised  to 
wed:  "  How  now  if  I  had  a  milk-shop?  " 

Mary  encouraged  him,  and  searched  for 
that  which  he  desired;  and  it  came  to  be 
that  on  a  Thursday  afternoon  they  two  met 
at  the  mouth  of  Worship  Street — the  nar- 
row lane  that  is  at  the  going  into  Rich- 
mond. 

"  Stand  here,  Marri,"  Evan  ordered. 
"  Go  in  will  I  and  have  words  with  the 
owner.  Hap  I  shall  uncover  his  tricks." 

"  Very  well  you  are,"  said  Mary. 
"  Don't  over-waggle  your  tongue.  Ad- 
dress him  in  hidden  phrases." 

81 


82  MY    NEIGHBORS 

Evan  entered  the  shop,  and  as  there  was 
no  one  therein  he  made  an  account  of  the 
tea  packets  and  flour  bags  which  were 
on  the  shelves.  Presently  a  small,  fat 
woman  stood  beyond  the  counter.  Evan 
addressed  her  in  English:  "Are  you 
Welsh?" 

"  That's  what  people  say,"  the  woman 
answered. 

"  Glad  am  I  to  hear  you,"  Evan  re- 
turned in  Welsh.  :<  Tell  me  how  you  was." 

"  A  Cymro  bach  I  see,"  the  woman  cried. 
"  How  was  you?  " 

"  Peeped  did  I  on  your  name  on  the  sign. 
Shall  I  say  you  are  Mistress  Jinkins? " 

"  Iss,  indeed,  man." 

:'What  about  affairs  these  close  days?" 

"  Busy  we  are.  Why  for  you  ask? 
Trade  you  do  in  milk?  " 

"Blurt  did  I  for  nothing,"  Evan  re- 
plied. 

"  No  odds,  little  man.  Ach  y  fy,  jealous 
other  milkmen  are  of  us.  There's  nasty 
some  people  are." 


EARTHBRED 


"  Natty  shop  you  have.  Little  shop  and 
big  traffic,  Mistress  Jinkins?  " 

"  Quick  you  are." 

"  Know  you  Tom  Mathias  Tabernacle 
Street?"  Evan  inquired. 

"  Seen  him  have  I  in  the  big  meetings 
at  Capel  King's  Cross." 

"  Getting  on  he  is,  for  certain  sure. 
Hundreds  of  pints  he  sells.  And 
groceries." 

"Pwf,"  Mrs.  Jenkins  sneered.  "  Ful- 
bert  you  are  to  believe  him.  A  liar  with- 
out shame  is  Twm.  And  a  cheat.  Bad 
sampler  he  is  of  the  Welsh." 

"  Speak  I  do  as  I  hear.  More  thriving 
is  your  concern." 

"  No  boast  is  in  me.  But  don't  we  do 
thirty  gallons? " 

Evan  summoned  up  surprise  into  his 
face,  and  joy.  "  Dear  me  to  goodness," 
he  exclaimed.  *  Take  something  must  I 
now.  Sell  you  me  an  egg." 

Evan  shook  the  egg  at  his  ear.  "  She 
is  good,"  he  remarked. 


84  MY    NEIGHBORS 

"  Weakish  is  the  male,"  observed  Mrs. 
Jenkins.  "  Much  trouble  he  has  in  his 
inside." 

"Poor  bach,"  replied  Evan.  "Well- 
well.  Fair  night  for  to-day." 

"  Why  for  you  are  in  a  hurry? " 

"  Woman  fach,  for  what  you  do  not 
know  that  I  abide  in  Wandsworth  and  the 
clock  is  late?  " 

Mrs.  Jenkins  laughed.  "  Boy  pretty  sly 
you  are.  Come  you  to  Richmond  to  buy 
one  egg?  " 

Evan  coughed  and  spat  upon  the 
ground,  and  while  he  cleaned  away  his 
spittle  with  a  foot  he  said:  "Courting 
business  have  I  on  the  Thursdays.  The 
wench  is  in  a  shop  draper." 

"  How  shall  I  mouth  where  she  is? 
With  Wright?" 

"  In  shop  Breach  she  is."  He  spoke 
this  in  English:  "  So  long." 

In  that  language  also  did  Mrs.  Jenkins 
answer  him:  "Now  we  shan't  be  long." 

Narrowing   his   eyes    and    crooking   his 


EARTHBRED  85 

knees,  Evan  stood  before  Mary.  "  Like 
to  find  out  more  would  I,"  he  said. 
"  Guess  did  the  old  female  that  I  had 
seen  the  adfertissment." 

"  Blockhead  you  are  to  bare  your 
mind,"  Mary  admonished  him. 

:<  Why  for  you  call  me  blockhead  when 
there's  no  blockhead  to  be? " 

"  Sorry  am  I,  dear  heart.  But  do  you 
hurry  to  marry  me.  You  know  that  things 
are  so  and  so.  The  month  has  shown 
nothing." 

"  Shut  your  head,  or  I'll  change  my 
think  altogether." 

The  next  week  Evan  called  at  the  dairy 
shop  again. 

"  How  was  the  people? "  he  cried  on 
the  threshold. 

Mrs.  Jenkins  opened  the  window  which 
was  at  the  back  of  her,  and  called  out: 
'  The  boy  from  Wales  is  here,  Dai." 

Stooping  as  he  moved  through  the  way 
of  the  door,  Dai  greeted  Evan  civilly: 
"How  was  you  this  day?" 


86  MY    NEIGHBORS 

"  Quite  grand,"  Evan  answered. 

"What  capel  do  you  go?" 

"  Walham  Green,  dear  man." 

"  Good  preach  there  was  by  the  Re- 
spected Eynon  Daviss  the  last  Sabbath 
morning,  shall  I  ask?  Eloquent  is 
Eynon." 

"  In  the  night  do  I  go." 

"  Solemn  serious,  go  you  ought  in  the 
mornings." 

"  Proper  is  your  saying,"  Evan  agreed. 
"  Perform  I  would  if  I  could." 

"  Biggish  is  your  round,  perhaps? "  said 
Dai. 

"  Iss-iss.  No-no."  Evan  was  con- 
fused. 

"  Don't  be  afraid  of  your  work.  Crafty 
is  your  manner." 

Evan  had  not  anything  to  say. 

"  Fortune  there  is  in  milk,"  said  Dai. 
"  Study  you  the  size  of  her.  Little  she  is. 
Heavy  will  be  my  loss.  The  rent  is  only 
fifteen  bob  a  week.  And  thirty  gallons 
and  more  do  I  do.  Broke  is  my  health," 


EARTHBRED  87 

and  Dai  laid  the  palms  of  his  hands  on 
his  belly  and  groaned. 

"  Here  he  is  to  visit  his  wench,"  said 
Mrs.  Jenkins. 

"You're  not  married  now  just?"  asked 
Dai. 

"  Better  in  his  pockets  trousers  is  a  male 
for  a  woman,"  said  Mrs.  Jenkins. 

"  Comforting  in  your  pockets  trousers  is 
a  woman,"  Dai  cried. 

"  Clap  your  throat,"  said  Mrs.  Jenkins. 
"  Redness  you  bring  to  my  skin." 

Evan  retired  and  considered. 

'  Tempting  is  the  business,"  he  told 
Mary.  "  Fancy  do  I  to  know  more  of  her. 
Come  must  I  still  once  yet." 

"  Be  not  slothful,"  Mary  pleaded.  "  Al- 
ready I  feel  pains,  and  quickly  the  months 
pass." 

Then  Evan  charged  her  to  watch  over 

« 

the  shop,  and  to  take  a  count  of  the  people 
who  went  into  it.  So  Mary  walked  in 
the  street.  Mrs.  Jenkins  saw  her  and  imag- 
ined her  purpose,  and  after  she  had  proved 


88  MY    NEIGHBORS 

her,  she  and  Dai  formed  a  plot  whereby 
many  little  children  and  young  youths  and 
girls  came  into  the  shop.  Mary  numbered 
every  one,  but  the  number  that  she  gave 
Evan  was  three  times  higher  than  the 
proper  number.  The  man  was  pleased,  and 
he  spoke  out  to  Dai.  "  Tell  me  the  price 
of  the  shop,"  he  said. 

"  Improved  has  the  health,"  replied 
Dai.  "  And  not  selling  I  don't  think 
am  I." 

"  Pity  that  is.    Great  offer  I  have." 

"  Smother  your  cry.  Taken  a  shop  too 
have  I  in  Petersham.  Rachel  will  look 
after  this." 

Mrs.  Jenkins  spoke  to  her  husband  with 
a  low  voice:  "Witless  you  are.  Let  him 
speak  figures." 

"  As  you  want  if  you  like  then,"  said 
Dai. 

"  A  puzzle  you  demand  this  one  min- 
ute," Evan  murmured.  '  Thirty  pounds 
would " 

"  Light    is    your    head,"     Dai     cried. 


EARTHBRED  89 

"  More  than  thirty  gallons  and  a  pram. 
Eighty  I  want  for  the  shop  and  stock." 

"  I  stop,"  Evan  pronounced.  "  Thirty- 
five  can  I  give.  No  more  and  no  less." 

"  Cute  bargainer  you  are.  Generous  am 
I  to  give  back  five  pounds  for  luck  cash 
on  spot.  Much  besides  is  my  counter 
trade." 

"  Bring  me  papers  for  my  eyes  to  see," 
said  Evan. 

Mrs.  Jenkins  rebuked  Evan:  "  Hoity- 
toity!  Not  Welsh  you  are.  Old  English 
boy." 

"Tut-tut,  Rachel  fach,"  said  Dai. 
"  Right  you  are,  and  right  and  wrong  is 
Evan  Roberts.  Books  I  should  have. 
Trust  I  give  and  trust  I  take.  I  have  no 
guile." 

"  How  answer  you  to  thirty-seven? " 
asked  Evan.  "  No  more  we've  got,  drop 
dead  and  blind." 

He  went  away  and  related  all  to 
Mary. 

"  Lose  the  shop  you  will,"  Mary  warned 


90  MY    NEIGHBORS 

him.  "  And  that's  remorseful  you'll 
be." 

"  Like  this  and  that  is  the  feeling,"  said 
Evan. 

"  Go  to  him,"  Mary  counseled,  "  and 
say  you  will  pay  forty-five." 

"  No-no,  foolish  that  is." 

They  two  conferred  with  each  other,  and 
Mary  gave  to  Evan  all  her  money,  which 
was  almost  twenty  pounds;  and  Evan 
said  to  Dai :  "  I  am  not  doubtful " 

"  Speak  what  is  in  you,"  Dai  urged 
quickly. 

"  Test  your  shop  will  I  for  eight  weeks 
as  manager.  I  give  you  twenty  down  as 
earnest  and  twenty-five  at  the  finish  of 
the  weeks  if  I  buy  her." 

Dai  and  Rachel  weighed  that  which 
Evan  had  proposed.  The  woman  said: 
"  A  lawyer  will  do  this  " ;  the  man  said : 
"  Splendid  is  the  bargain  and  costly  and 
thievish  are  old  lawyers." 

In  this  sort  Dai  answered  Evan:  "Do 
as  you  say.  But  I  shall  not  give  money 


EARTHBRED  91 

for  your  work.  Act  you  honestly  by  me. 
Did  not  mam  carry  me  next  my  brother, 
who  is  a  big  preacher?  Lend  you  will  I 
a  bed,  and  a  dish  or  two  and  a  plate,  and 
a  knife  to  eat  food." 

At  this  Mary's  joy  was  abounding. 
"  Put  you  up  the  banns,"  she  said. 

"  Lots  of  days  there  is.  Wait  until  I've 
bought  the  place." 

Mary  tightened  her  inner  garments  and 

loosened   her   outer   garments,    and    every 

.evening  she  came  to  the  shop  to  prepare 

food  for  Evan,  to  make  his  bed,  and  to 

minister  to  him  as  a  woman. 

Now  the  daily  custom  at  the  shop  was 
twelve  gallons  of  milk,  and  the  tea  packets 
and  flour  bags  which  were  on  shelves  were 
empty.  Evan's  anger  was  awful.  He  up- 
braided Mary,  and  he  prayed  to  be  shown 
how  to  worst  Dai.  His  prayer  was  re- 
spected: at  the  end  of  the  second  week 
he  gave  Dai  two  pounds  more  than  he  had 
given  him  the  week  before. 

"  Brisk  is  trade,"  said  Dai. 


92  MY    NEIGHBORS 

"  I  took  into  stock  flour,  tea,  and  four 
tins  of  job  biscuits,"  replied  Evan.  "  Am 
I  not  your  servant? " 

"  Well  done,  good  and  faithful  servant." 

It  was  so  that  Evan  bought  more  than 
he  would  sell,  and  each  week  he  held  a 
little  money  by  fraud;  and  matches  also 
and  bundles  of  firewood  and  soap  did  he 
buy  in  Dai's  name. 

In  the  middle  of  the  eighth  week  Dai 
came  down  to  the  shop. 

"  How  goes  it? "  he  asked  in  English. 

"  Fine,  man.  Fine."  Changing  his  lan- 
guage, Evan  said:  "  Keep  her  will  I,  and 
give  you  the  money  as  I  pledged.  Take 
you  the  sum  and  sign  you  the  paper 
bach." 

Having  acted  accordingly,  Dai  cast  his 
gaze  on  the  shelves  and  on  the  floor,  and 
he  walked  about  judging  aloud  the  value 
of  what  he  saw:  "Tea,  three-pound-ten; 
biscuits,  four-six;  flour,  four-five;  fire- 
wood, five  shillings;  matches,  one-ten;  soap, 
one  pound.  Bring  you  these  to  Petersham. 


EARTHBRED  93 

Put  you  them  with  the  bed  and  the  dishes 
I  kindly  lent  you." 

"  For  sure  me,  fulfil  my  pledge  will  I," 
Evan  said. 

He  assembled  Dai's  belongings  and 
placed  them  in  a  cart  which  he  had  bor- 
rowed; and  on  the  back  of  the  cart  he 
hung  a  Chinese  lantern  which  had  in  it  a 
lighted  candle.  When  he  arrived  at  Dai's 
house,  he  cried:  "Here  is  your  ownings. 
Unload  you  them." 

Dai  examined  the  inside  of  the  cart. 
"  Mistake  there  is,  Evan.  Where's  the 
stock? " 

"  Did  I  not  pay  you  for  your  stock  and 
shop  ?  Forgetful  you  are." 

Dai's  wrath  was  such  that  neither  could 
he  blaspheme  God  nor  invoke  His  help. 
Removing  the  slabber  which  was  gathered 
in  his  beard  and  at  his  mouth,  he  shouted: 
"  Put  police  on  you  will  I." 

"  Away  must  I  now,"  said  Evan. 
"  Come,  take  your  bed." 

"  Not  touch  anything  will   I.     Rachel, 


94,  MY    NEIGHBORS 

witness  his  roguery.  Steal  he  does  from 
the  religious." 

Evan  drove  off,  and  presently  he  be- 
came uneasy  of  the  evil  that  might  befall 
him  were  Dai  and  Rachel  to  lay  their  hands 
on  him;  he  led  his  horse  into  the  un- 
familiar and  hard  and  steep  road  which 
goes  up  to  the  Star  and  Garter,  and  which 
therefrom  falls  into  Richmond  town.  At 
what  time  he  was  at  the  top  he  heard  the 
sound  of  Dai  and  Rachel  running  to  him, 
each  screaming  upon  him  to  stop.  Rachel 
seized  the  bridle  of  the  horse,  and  Dai  tried 
to  climb  over  the  back  of  the  cart.  Evan 
bent  forward  and  beat  the  woman  with 
his  whip,  and  she  leaped  aside.  But  Dai 
did  not  release  his  clutch,  and  because  the 
lantern  swayed  before  his  face  he  flung  it 
into  the  cart. 

Evan  did  not  hear  any  more  voices,  and 
misdeeming  that  he  had  got  the  better  of 
his  enemies,  he  turned,  and,  lo,  the  bed 
was  in  a  yellow  flame.  He  strengthened 
his  legs  and  stretched  out  his  thin  upper 


EARTHBRED  95 

lip,  and  pulled  at  the  reins,  saying:  "Wo, 
now."  But  the  animal  thrust  up  its  head 
and  on  a  sudden  galloped  downwards. 
At  the  railing  which  divides  two  roads  it 
was  hindered,  and  Evan  was  thrown  upon 
the  ground.  Men  came  forward  to  lift  him, 
and  he  was  dead. 


FOR  BETTER 


FOR  BETTER 

AT  the  time  it  was  said  of  him  "  There's 
a  boy  that  gets  on  he  is,"  Enoch  Harries 
was  given  Gwen  the  daughter  of  the 
builder  Dan  Thomas.  On  the  first  Sunday 
after  her  marriage  the  people  of  Kingsend 
Welsh  Tabernacle  crowded  about  Gwen, 
asking  her:  "How  like  you  the  bed, 
Messes  Harries  fach?"  "Enoch  has 
opened  a  shop  butcher  then?"  "Any 
signs  of  a  baban  bach  yet?  "  "  Managed  to 
get  up  quickly  you  did  the  day?"  Gwen 
answered  in  the  manner  the  questions  were 
asked,  seriously  or  jestingly.  She  con- 
sidered these  sayings,  and  the  cause  of  her 
uneasiness  was  not  a  puzzle  to  her;  and 
she  got  to  despise  the  man  whom  she  had 
married,  and  whose  skin  was  like  parched 
leather,  and  to  repel  his  impotent  em- 
braces. 

99 


100  MY    NEIGHBORS 

Withal  she  gave  Enoch  pleasure.  She 
clothed  herself  with  costly  garments, 
adorned  her  person  with  rings  and  orna- 
ments, and  she  modeled  her  hair  in  the 
way  of  a  bob-wig.  Enoch  gave  in  to  her 
in  all  things;  he  took  her  among  Welsh 
master  builders,  drapers,  grocers,  dairy- 
men, into  their  homes  and  such  places  as 
they  assembled  in;  and  his  pride  in  his 
wife  was  nearly  as  great  as  his  pride 
in  the  twenty  plate-glass  windows  of  his 
shop. 

In  her  vanity  Gwen  exalted  her  estate. 

"  I  hate  living  over  the  shop,"  she  said. 
"  It's  so  common.  Let's  take  a  house  away 
from  here." 

"  Good  that  I  am  on  the  premizes," 
Enoch  replied  in  Welsh.  "  Hap  go  wrong 
will  affairs  if  I  leave." 

"  We  can't  ask  any  one  decent  here. 
Only  commercials,"  Gwen  said.  With  a 
show  of  care  for  her  husband's  welfare, 
she  added:  "Working  too  hard  is  my  boy 


FOR    BETTER  101 

bach.  And  very  splendid  you  should  be." 
Her  design  was  fulfilled,  and  she  and 
Enoch  came  to  dwell  in  Thornton  East, 
in  a  house  near  Richmond  Park,  and  on 
the  gate  before  the  house,  and  on  the  door 
of  the  house,  she  put  the  name  Windsor. 
From  that  hour  she  valued  herself  high. 
She  had  the  words  Mrs.  G.  Enos-Harries 
printed  on  cards,  and  she  did  not  speak  of 
Enoch's  trade  in  the  hearing  of  anybody. 
She  gave  over  conversing  in  Welsh,  and 
would  give  no  answer  when  spoken  to  in 
that  tongue.  She  devised  means  con- 
tinually to  lift  herself  in  the  esteem  of 
her  neighbors,  acting  as  she  thought  they 
acted:  she  had  a  man-servant  and  four 
maid-servants,  and  she  instructed  them  to 
address  her  as  the  madam  and  Enoch  as 
the  master;  she  had  a  gong  struck  before 
meals  and  a  bell  rung  during  meals;  the 
furniture  in  her  rooms  was  as  numerous 
as  that  in  the  windows  of  a  shop;  she  went 
to  the  parish  church  on  Sundays;  she 


102  MY    NEIGHBORS 

made  feasts.  But  her  life  was  bitter: 
tradespeople  ate  at  her  table  and  her  neigh- 
bors disregarded  her. 

Enoch  mollified  her  moaning  with: 
"  Never  mind.  I  could  buy  the  whole 
street  up.  I'll  have  you  a  motor-car.  Fine 
it  will  be  with  an  advert  on  the  front 
engine." 

Still  slighted,  Gwen  smoothed  her  misery 
with  deeds.  She  declared  she  was  a  Lib- 
eral, and  she  frequented  Thornton  Vale 
English  Congregational  Chapel.  She  gave 
ten  guineas  to  the  rebuilding  fund,  put 
a  carpet  on  the  floor  of  the  pastor's 
parlor,  sang  at  brotherhood  gatherings, 
and  entertained  the  pastor  and  his 
wife. 

Wherefore  her  charity  was  discoursed 
thus :  "  Now  when  Peter  spoke  of  a  light 
that  shines — shines,  mark  you — he  was 
thinking  of  such  ladies  as  Mrs.  G.  Enos- 
Harries.  Not  forgetting  Mr.  G.  Enos- 
Harries." 

"  I'm   going   to    build   you    a    vestry," 


FOR    BETTER  103 

Gwen  said  to  the  pastor.  "  I'll  organize  a 
sale  of  work  to  begin  with." 

The  vestry  was  set  up,  and  Gwen  be- 
thought of  one  who  should  be  charged  with 
the  opening  ceremony  of  it,  and  to  her 
mind  came  Ben  Lloyd,  whose  repute  was 
great  among  the  London  Welsh,  and  to 
whose  house  in  Twickenham  she  rode  in 
her  car.  Ben's  wife  answered  her  sharply: 
"  He's  awfully  busy.  And  I  know  he 
won't  see  visitors." 

"But  won't  you  tell  him?  It  will  do 
him  such  a  lot  of  good.  You  know  what  a 
stronghold  of  Toryism  this  place  is." 

A  voice  from  an  inner  room  cried: 
'  Who  is  to  see  me? " 

"  Come  this  way,"  said  Mrs.  Lloyd. 

Ben,  sitting  at  a  table  with  writing  paper 
and  a  Bible  before  him,  rose. 

"  Messes  Enos-Harries,"  he  said,  "  long 
since  I  met  you.  No  odds  if  I  mouth 
Welsh?  There's  a  language,  dear  me. 
This  will  not  interest  you  in  the  least. 
Put  your  ambarelo  in  the  cornel,  Messes 


104  MY    NEIGHBORS 

Enos-Harries,  and  your  backhead  in  a 
chair.  Making  a  lecture  am  I." 

Gwen  told  him  the  errand  upon  which 
she  was  bent,  and  while  they  two  drank 
tea,  Ben  said:  "Sing  you  a  song,  Messes 
Enos-Harries.  Not  forgotten  have  I  your 
singing  in  Queen's  Hall  on  the  Day  of 
David  the  Saint.  Inspire  me  wonderfully 
you  did  with  the  speech.  I've  been  sad 
too,  but  you  are  a  wedded  female.  Sing 
you  now  then.  Push  your  cup  and  saucer 
under  the  chair." 

"  No-no,  not  in  tone  am  I,"  Gwen 
feigned. 

"  How  about  a  Welsh  hymn?  Come  in 
will  I  at  the  repeats." 

"Messes  Lloyd  will  sing  the  piano?" 

"  Go  must  she  about  her  duties.  She's 
a  handless  poor  dab." 

Gwen  played  and  sang. 

"Solemn  pretty  hymns  have  we,"  said 
Ben.  "Are  we  not  large?"  He  moved 
and  stood  under  a  picture  which  hung  on 
the  wall — his  knees  touching  and  his  feet 


FOR    BETTER  105 

apart — and  the  picture  was  that  of  Crom- 
well. "  My  friends  say  I  am  Cromwell  and 
Milton  rolled  into  one.  The  Great  Father 
gave  me  a  child  and  He  took  him  back  to 
the  Palace.  Religious  am  I.  Want  I  do 
to  live  my  life  in  the  hills  and  valleys  of 
Wales:  listening  to  the  anthem  of  creation, 
and  searching  for  Him  under  the  bark  of 
the  tree.  And  there  I  shall  wait  for  the 
sound  of  the  last  trumpet." 

"  A  poet  you  are."    Gwen  was  astonished. 

"  You  are  a  poetess,  for  sure  me,"  Ben 
said.  He  leaned  over  her.  "  Sparkling  are 
your  eyes.  Deep  brown  are  they — brown 
as  the  nut  in  the  paws  of  the  squirrel.  Be 
you  a  bard  and  write  about  boys  Cymru. 
Tell  how  they  succeed  in  big  London." 

"  I  will  try,"  said  Gwen. 

"  Like  you  are  and  me.  Think  you  do 
as  I  think." 

"  Know  you  for  long  I  would,"  said 
Gwen. 

"For  ever,"  cried  Ben.  "But  wedded 
you  are.  Read  you  a  bit  of  the  lecture 


106  MY    NEIGHBORS 

will  I."  Having  ended  his  reading  and 
having  sobbed  over  and  praised  that  which 
he  had  read,  Ben  uttered :  "  Certain  you 
come  again.  Come  you  and  eat  supper 
when  the  wife  is  not  at  home." 

Gwen  quaked  as  she  went  to  her  car, 
and  she  sought  a  person  who  professed  to 
tell  fortunes,  and  whom  she  made  to  say: 
"A  gentleman  is  in  love  with  you.  And 
he  loves  you  for  your  brain.  He  is  not 
your  husband.  He  is  more  to  you  than 
your  husband.  I  hear  his  silver  voice  hold- 
ing spellbound  hundreds  of  people;  I  see 
his  majestic  forehead  and  his  auburn  locks 
and  the  strands  of  his  silken  mustache." 

Those  words  made  Gwen  very  happy, 
and  she  deceived  herself  that  they  were 
true.  She  composed  verses  and  gave  them 
to  Ben. 

"  Not  right  to  Nature  is  this,"  said  Ben. 
'  The  mother  is  wrong.  How  many  chil- 
dren you  have,  Messes  Enos-Harries  ? " 

"  Not  one.  The  husband  is  weak  and  he 
is  older  much  than  I." 


FOR    BETTER  107 

'  The  Father  has  kept  His  most  beauti- 
ful gift  from  you.  Pity  that  is."  Tears 
gushed  from  Ben's  eyes.  "  If  the  mar- 
riage-maker had  brought  us  together,  chil- 
dren we  would  have  jeweled  with  your  eyes 
and  crowned  with  your  hair." 

"  And  your  intellect,"  said  Gwen.  "  You 
will  be  the  greatest  Welshman." 

'  Whisper  will  I  now.  A  drag  is  the 
wife.  Happy  you  are  with  the  hus- 
band." 

'  Why  for  you  speak  like  that? " 

"And  for  why  we  are  not  married?" 
Ben  took  Gwen  in  his  arms  and  he  kissed 
her  and  drew  her  body  nigh  to  him;  and 
in  a  little  while  he  opened  the  door 
sharply  and  rebuked  his  wife  that  she 
waited  thereat. 

Daily  did  Gwen  praise  and  laud  Ben  to 
her  husband.  '  There  is  no  one  in  the 
world  like  him,"  she  said.  "  He  will  get 
very  far." 

"  Bring  Mistar  Lloyd  to  Windsor  for 
me  to  know  him  quite  well,"  said  Enoch. 


108  MY    NEIGHBORS 

"  I  will  ask  him,"  Gwen  replied  without 
faltering. 

"  Benefit  myself  I  will." 

Early  every  Thursday  afternoon  Ben 
arrived  at  Windsor,  and  at  the  coming 
home  from  his  shop  of  Enoch,  Ben  always 
said :  "  Messes  Enos-Harries  has  been  sing- 
ing the  piano.  Like  the  trilling  of  God's 
feathered  choir  is  her  music." 

Though  Ben  and  Gwen  were  left  at 
peace  they  could  not  satisfy  nor  crush 
their  lust. 

Before  three  years  were  over,  Ben  had 
obtained  great  fame.  "  He  ought  to  be 
in  Parliament  and  give  up  preaching  en- 
tirely," some  said;  and  Enoch  and  Gwen 
were  partakers  of  his  glory. 

Then  Gwen  told  him  that  she  had  con- 
ceived, whereof  Ben  counseled  her  to  go 
into  her  husband's  bed. 

:'  That  I  have  not  the  stomach  to  do," 
the  woman  complained. 

"  As  you  say,  dear  heart,"  said  Ben. 
"  Cancer  has  the  wife.  Perish  soon  she 


FOR    BETTER  109 

must.  Ease  our  path  and  lie  with  your 
lout." 

Presently  Gwen  bore  a  child;  and  Enoch 
her  husband  looked  at  it  and  said :  "  Going 
up  is  Ben  Lloyd.  Solid  am  I  as  the 
counter." 

Gwen  related  her  fears  to  Ben,  who  con- 
trived to  make  Enoch  a  member  of  the 
London  County  Council.  Enoch  rejoiced: 
summoning  the  congregation  of  Thornton 
Vale  to  be  witnesses  of  his  gift  of  a  Bible 
cushion  to  the  chapel. 

As  joy  came  to  him,  so  grief  fell  upon 
his  wife.  "After  all,"  Ben  wrote  to  her, 
"  you  belong  to  him.  You  have  been 
joined  together  in  the  holiest  and  sacred- 
est  matrimony.  Monumental  responsibili- 
ties have  been  thrust  on  me  by  my  people. 
I  did  not  seek  for  them,  but  it  is  my  duty 
to  bear  them.  Pray  that  I  shall  use  God's 
hoe  with  understanding  and  wisdom.  There 
is  a  talk  of  putting  me  up  for  Parliament. 
Others  will  have  a  chanse  of  electing  a  real 
religious  man.  I  must  not  be  tempted  by 


110  MY    NEIGHBORS 

you  again.  Well,  good-by,  Gwen,  may  He 
keep  you  unspotted  from  the  world.  Ships 
that  pass  in  the  night." 

Enoch  was  plagued,  and  he  followed  Ben 
to  chapel  meetings,  eisteddfodau,  Cymro- 
dorion  and  St.  David's  Day  gatherings, 
always  speaking  in  this  fashion :  "  Cast 
under  is  the  girl  fach  you  do  not  visit 
her.  Improved  has  her  singing." 

Because  Ben  was  careless  of  his  call, 
his  wrath  heated  and  he  said  to  him: 
"  Growing  is  the  baban." 

"How's  trade?"  Ben  remarked.  "Do 
you  estimate  for  Government  contracts? " 

"  Not  thought  have  I." 

"  Just  hinted.     A  word  I  can  put  in." 

"  Red  is  the  head  of  the  baban." 

"  Two  black  heads  make  red,"  observed 
Ben. 

"And  his  name  is  Benjamin." 

"  As  you  speak.  Farewell  for  to-day. 
How  would  you  like  to  put  up  for  a  Welsh 
constituency? " 

"  Not    deserving    am    I    of    anything. 


FOR    BETTER  111 

Happy  would  I  and  the  wife  be  to  see  you 
in  the  House." 

But  Ben's  promise  was  fruitless;  and 
Enoch  bewailed :  "  A  serpent  flew  into  my 
house." 

He  ordered  Gwen  to  go  to  Ben. 

"  Recall  to  him  this  and  that,"  he  said. 
"  A  very  good  advert  an  M.  P.  would  be 
for  the  business.  Be  you  dressed  like  a 
lady.  Take  a  fur  coat  on  appro  from  the 
shop." 

Often  thereafter  he  bade  his  wife  to  take 
such  a  message.  But  Gwen  had  overcome 
her  distress  and  she  strew  abroad  her 
charms;  for  no  man  could  now  suffice  her. 
So  she  always  departed  to  one  of  her 
lovers  and  came  back  with  fables  on  her 
tongue. 

'  What  can  you  expect  of  the  Welsh? " 
cried  Enoch  in  his  wrath.  "  He  hasn't 
paid  for  the  goods  he  got  on  tick  from  the 
shop.  County  court  him  will  I.  He  ate 
my  food.  The  unrighteous  ate  the  food 
of  the  righteous.  And  he  was  bad  with 


112  MY    NEIGHBORS 

you.  Did  I  not  watch?  No  good  is  the 
assistant  that  lets  the  customer  go  away 
with  not  a  much  obliged." 

The  portion  of  the  Bible  that  Enoch 
read  that  night  was  this :  "  I  have  decked 
my  bed  with  coverings  of  tapestry,  with 
carved  works,  with  fine  linen  of  Egypt. 
.  .  .  Come,  let  us  take  our  fill  of  love 
until  the  morning:  let  us  solace  ourselves 
with  love.  For  the  goodman  is  not  at 
home,  he  is  gone  on  a  long  journey.  He 
hath " 

"  That's  lovely,"  said  Gwen. 

"  Tapestry  from  my  shop,"  Enoch  ex- 
pounded. "And  Irish  linen.  And  busy 
was  the  draper  in  Kingsend." 

Gwen  pretended  to  be  asleep. 

"  He  is  the  father.  That  will  learn  him 
to  keep  his  promise.  The  wicked  man! " 

Unknown  to  her  husband  Gwen  stood 
before  Ben;  and  at  the  sight  of  her  Ben 
longed  to  wanton  with  her.  Gwen 
stretched  out  her  arms  to  be  clear  of 
him  and  to  speak  to  him;  her  speech  was 


FOR    BETTER  113 

stopped  with  kisses  and  her  breasts  swelled 
out.  Again  she  found  pleasure  in  Ben's 
strength. 

Then  sjie  spoke  of  her  husband's 
hatred. 

"  Like  a  Welshman  every  spit  he  is," 
said  Ben.  "  And  a  black." 

But  his  naughtiness  oppressed  him  for 
many  days  and  he  intrigued;  and  it  came 
to  pass  that  Enoch  was  asked  to  contest 
a  Welsh  constituency,  and  Enoch  immedi- 
ately let  fall  his  anger  for  Ben. 

"  Celebrate  this  we  shall  with  a  recep- 
tion in  the  Town  Hall,"  he  announced. 
*  You,  Gwen  fach,  will  wear  the  chikest 
Paris  model  we  can  find.  Ben's  kindness 
is  more  than  I  expected.  Much  that  I 
have  I  owe  to  him." 

"  Even  your  son,"  said  Gwen. 


TREASURE  AND  TROUBLE 


VI 
TREASURE  AND  TROUBLE 

ON  a  day  in  a  dry  summer  Sheremiah's 
wife  Catrin  drove  her  cows  to  drink  at 
the  pistil  which  is  in  the  field  of  a  certain 
man.  Hearing  of  that  which  she  had 
done,  the  man  commanded  his  son: 
"  Awful  is  the  frog  to  open  my  gate. 
Put  you  the  dog  and  bitch  on  her. 
Teach  her  will  I." 

It  was  so;  and  Sheremiah  complained: 
"Why  for  is  my  spring  barren?  In  every 
field  should  water  be." 

"  Say,  little  husband,  what  is  in  your 
think? "  asked  Catrin. 

"  Stupid  is  your  head,"  Sheremiah  an- 
swered, "  not  to  know  what  I  throw  out. 
Going  am  I  to  search  for  a  wet  farm 
fach." 

Sheremiah  journeyed  several  ways,  and 
117 


118  MY    NEIGHBORS 

always  he  journeyed  in  secret;  and  he 
could  not  find  what  he  wanted.  Tailor 
Club  Foot  came  to  sit  on  his  table  to 
sew  together  garments  for  him  and  his 
two  sons.  The  tailor  said :  "  Farm  very 
pretty  is  Rhydwen.  Farm  splendid  is  the 
farm  fach." 

"  And  speak  like  that  you  do,  Club 
Foot,"  said  Sheremiah. 

"  Iss-iss,"  the  tailor  mumbled. 

"  Not  wanting  an  old  farm  do  I," 
Sheremiah  cried.  "  But  speak  to  good- 
ness where  the  place  is.  Near  you  are, 
calf  bach,  about  affairs." 

The  tailor  answered  that  Rhydwen  is 
in  the  hollow  of  the  hill  which  arises  from 
Capel  Sion  to  the  moor. 

In  the  morning  Sheremiah  rode  forth 
on  his  colt,  and  he  said  to  Shan  Rhydwen: 
"  Boy  of  a  pigger  am  I,  whatever." 

"  Dirt-dirt,  man,"  Shan  cried ;  "  no  fat 
pigs  have  I,  look  you." 

"  Mournful  that  is.  Mouthings  have  I 
heard  about  grand  pigs  Tyhen.  No  odds, 


TREASURE    AND    TROUBLE     119 

wench.  Farewell  for  this  minute,  female 
Tyhen." 

"  Pigger  from  where  you  are?"  Shan 
asked. 

"  From  Pencader  the  horse  has  carried 
me.  Carry  a  preacher  he  did  the  last 
Monday." 

'  Weary  you  are,  stranger.  Give  hay 
to  your  horse,  and  rest  you  and  take  you 
a  little  cup  of  tea." 

"  Happy  am  I  to  do  that.  Thirsty  is 
the  backhead  of  my  neck." 

Sheremiah  praised  the  Big  Man  for  tea, 
bread,  butter,  and  cheese,  and  while  he 
ate  and  drank  he  put  artful  questions  to 
Shan.  In  the  evening  he  said  to  Catrin: 
"  Quite  tidy  is  Rhydwen.  Is  she  not  one 
hundred  acres?  And  if  there  is  not  water 
in  every  field,  is  there  not  in  four? " 

He  hastened  to  the  owner  of  Rhydwen 
and  made  this  utterance :  "  Farmer  very 
ordinary  is  your  sister  Shan.  Shamed  was 
I  to  examine  your  land." 

"  I    shouldn't    be    surprised,"    answered 


120  MY    NEIGHBORS 

the  owner.  "  Speak  hard  must  I  to  the 
trollop." 

"  Not  handy  are  women,"  said  Shere- 
miah.  "  Sell  him  to  me  the  poor-place. 
Three-fourths  of  the  cost  I  give  in  yellow 
money  and  one-fourth  by-and-by  in  three 
years." 

Having  taken  over  Rhydwen,  Shere- 
miah  in  due  season  sold  much  of  his  corn 
and  hay,  some  of  his  cattle,  and  many 
such  movable  things  as  were  in  his  house 
or  employed  in  tillage;  and  he  and  Catrin 
came  to  abide  in  Rhydwen;  and  they  ar- 
rived with  horses  in  carts,  cows,  a  bull 
and  oxen,  and  their  sons,  Aben  and  Dan. 
As  they  passed  Capel  Sion,  people  who 
were  gathered  at  the  roadside  to  judge 
them  remarked  how  that  Aben  was  blind 
in  his  left  eye  and  that  Dan's  shoulders 
were  as  high  as  his  ears. 

At  the  finish  of  a  round  of  time  Shere- 
miah  hired  out  his  sons  and  all  that  they 
earned  he  took  away  from  them;  and  he 
and  Catrin  toiled  to  recover  Rhydwen 


TREASURE    AND    TROUBLE     121 

from  its  slovenry.  After  he  had  paid  all 
that  he  owed  for  the  place,  and  after 
Catrin  had  died  of  dropsy,  he  called  his 
sons  home. 

Thereon  he  thrived.  He  was  over  all 
on  the  floor  of  Sion,  even  those  in  the  Big 
Seat.  Men  in  debt  and  many  widow- 
women  sought  him  to  free  them,  and  in 
freeing  them  he  made  compacts  to  his 
advantage.  Thus  he  came  to  have 
more  cattle  than  Rhydwen  could  hold, 
and  he  bought  Penlan,  the  farm  of  eighty 
acres  which  goes  up  from  Rhydwen  to  the 
edge  of  the  moor,  and  beyond. 

In  quiet  seasons  he  and  Aben  and  Dan 
dug  ditches  on  the  land  of  Rhydwen;  "so 
that,"  he  said,  "  my  creatures  shall  not 
perish  of  thirst." 

Of  a  sudden  a  sickness  struck  him,  and 
in  the  hush  which  is  sometimes  before 
death,  he  summoned  to  him  his  sons. 
"  Off  away  am  I  to  the  Palace,"  he  said. 

"  Large  will  be  the  shout  of  joy  among 
the  angels,"  Aben  told  him. 


122  MY    NEIGHBORS 

"  And  much  weeping  there  will  be  in 
Sion,"  said  Dan.  "  Speak  you  a  little 
verse  for  a  funeral  preach." 

"  Cease  you  your  babblings,  now,  in- 
deed," Sheremiah  demanded.  "  Born  first 
you  were,  Aben,  and  you  get  Rhydwen. 
And  you,  Dan,  Penlan." 

"Father  bach,"  Aben  cried,  "not  right 
that  you  leave  more  to  me  than  Dan." 

"  Crow  you  do  like  a  cuckoo,"  Dan  ad- 
monished his  brother.  "Wise  you  are, 
father.  Big  already  is  your  giving  to  me." 

Aben  looked  at  the  window  and  he 
beheld  a  corpse  candle  moving  outward 
through  the  way  of  the  gate.  "  Religious 
you  lived,  father  Sheremiah,  and  religious 
you  put  on  a  White  Shirt."  Then  Aben 
spoke  of  the  sight  he  had  seen. 

The  old  man  opened  his  lips,  counsel- 
ing: "  Hish,  hish,  boys.  Break  you 
trenches  in  Penlan,  Dan.  Poor  bad  are 
farms  without  water.  More  than  every- 
thing is  water."  He  died,  and  his  sons 
washed  him  and  clothed  him  in  a  White 


TREASURE    AND    TROUBLE     123 

Shirt  of  the  dead,  and  clipped  off  his  long 
beard,  which  ceasing  to  grow,  shall  not 
entwine  his  legs  and  feet  and  his  arms  and 
hands  on  the  Day  of  Rising;  and  they 
bowed  their  heads  in  Sion  for  the  full 
year. 

Dan  and  Aben  lived  in  harmony.  They 
were  not  as  brothers,  but  as  strangers; 
neighborly  and  at  peace.  They  married 
wives,  by  whom  they  had  children,  and 
they  sat  in  the  Big  Seat  in  Sion.  They 
mowed  their  hay  and  reaped  their  corn  at 
separate  periods,  so  that  one  could  help 
the  other;  if  one  needed  the  loan  of  any- 
thing he  would  borrow  it  from  his  brother; 
if  one's  heifer  strayed  into  the  pasture  of 
the  other,  the  other  would  say:  "  The  Big 
Man  will  make  the  old  grass  grow."  On 
the  Sabbath  they  and  their  children  walked 
as  in  procession  to  Sion. 

In  accordance  with  his  father's  word, 
Dan  dug  ditches  in  Penlan;  and  against 
the  barnyard — which  is  at  the  forehead  of 
his  house — water  sprang  up,  and  he  caused 


124  MY    NEIGHBORS 

it  to  run  over  his  water-wheel  into  his 
pond. 

Now  there  fell  upon  this  part  of  Cardi- 
ganshire a  season  of  exceeding  drought. 
The  face  of  the  earth  was  as  the  face  of 
a  cancerous  man.  There  was  no  water  in 
any  of  the  ditches  of  Rhydwen  and  none 
in  those  of  Penlan.  But  the  spring  which 
Dan  had  found  continued  to  yield,  and 
from  it  Aben's  wife  took  away  water  in 
pitchers  and  buckets;  and  to  the  pond 
Aben  brought  his  animals. 

One  day  Aben  spoke  to  Dan  in  this 
wise :  "  Serious  sure,  an  old  bother  is 
this." 

"  Iss-iss,"  replied  Dan.  "  Good  is  the 
Big  Man  to  allow  us  water  bach." 

"  How  speech  you  if  I  said :  *  Unfasten 
your  pond  and  let  him  flow  into  my 
ditches'?" 

"  The  land  will  suck  him  before  he  goes 
far,"  Dan  answered. 

Aben  departed ;  and  he  considered :  "  Did 
not  Penlan  belong  to  Sheremiah?  Travel 


TREASURE    AND    TROUBLE     125 

under  would  the  water  and  hap  spout  up 
in  my  close.  Nice  that  would  be.  Nasty 
is  the  behavior  of  Dan  and  there's  sly  is 
the  job." 

To  Dan  he  said :  "  Open  your  pond, 
man,  and  let  the  water  come  into  the 
ditches  which  father  Sheremiah  broke." 

Dan  would  not  do  as  Aben  desired, 
wherefore  Aben  informed  against  him 
in  Sion,  crying:  "Little  Big  Man,  know 
you  not  what  a  Turk  is  the  fox?  One  eye 
bach  I  have,  but  you  have  two,  and  can 
see  all  his  wickedness.  Make  you  him  pay 
the  cost."  He  raised  his  voice  so  high 
that  the  congregation  could  not  discern 
the  meaning  thereof,  and  it  shouted  as  one 
person:  ;'Wo,  now,  boy  Sheremiah! 
What  is  the  matter,  say  you? " 

The  anger  which  Aben  nourished  against 
Dan  waxed  hot.  Rain  came,  and  it  did 
not  abate,  and  the  man  plotted  mischief 
to  his  brother's  damage.  In  heavy  dark- 
ness he  cut  the  halters  which  held  Dan's 
cows  and  horses  to  their  stalls  and  drove 


126  MY    NEIGHBORS 

the  animals  into  the  road.  He  also 
poisoned  pond  Penlan,  and  a  sheep  died 
before  it  could  be  killed  and  eaten. 

Dan  wept  very  sore.  "  Take  you  the 
old  water,"  he  said.  "  Fat  is  my  sorrow." 

"  Not  religious  you  are,"  Aben  censured 
him.  "  All  the  water  is  mine." 

:i  Useful  he  is  to  me,"  Dan  replied. 
"  Like  would  I  that  he  turns  my  wheel  as 
he  goes  to  you." 

"  Clap    your   mouth,"    answered    Aben. 

"  Not  as  much  as  will  go  through  the  leg 
of  a  smoking  pipe  shall  you  have." 

In  Sion  Aben  told  the  Big  Man  of  all 
the  benefits  which  he  had  conferred  upon 
Dan. 

Men  and  women  encouraged  his  fury; 
some  said  this :  "  An  old  paddy  is  Dan 
to  rob  your  water.  Ach  y  fi  " ;  and  some 
said  this:  "A  dirty  ass  is  the  mule."  His 
fierce  wrath  was  not  allayed  albeit  Dan 
turned  the  course  of  the  water  away  from 
his  pond,  and  on  his  knees  and  at  his  labor 
asked  God  that  peace  might  come. 


TREASURE    AND    TROUBLE     127 

"  Bury  the  water,"  Aben  ordered,  "  and 
fill  in  the  ditch,  Satan." 

"  That  will  I  do  speedily,"  Dan  an- 
swered in  his  timidity.  "  Do  you  give  me 
an  hour  fach,  for  is  not  the  sowing  at 
hand? "  Aben  would  not  hearken  unto 
his  brother.  He  deliberated  with  a 
lawyer,  and  Dan  was  made  to  dig  a  ditch 
straightway  from  the  spring  to  the  close 
of  Rhydwen,  and  he  put  pipes  in  the 
bottom  of  the  ditch,  and  these  pipes  he 
covered  with  gravel  and  earth. 

So  as  Dan  did  not  sow,  he  had  nothing 
to  reap;  and  people  mocked  him  in  this 
fashion :  "  Come  we  will  and  gather  in  your 
harvest,  Dan  bach."  He  held  his  tongue, 
because  he  had  nothing  to  say.  .  His  af- 
fliction pressed  upon  him  so  heavily  that 
he  would  not  be  consoled  and  he  hanged 
himself  on  a  tree;  and  his  body  was 
taken  down  at  the  time  of  the  morning 
stars. 

A  man  ran  to  Rhydwen  and  related  to 
Aben  the  manner  of  Dan's  death.  Aben 


128  MY    NEIGHBORS 

went  into  a  field  and  sat  as  one  aston- 
ished until  the  light  of  day  paled.  Then 
he  arose,  shook  himself,  and  set  to  number 
the  ears  of  wheat  which  were  in  his  field. 


SAINT  DAVID  AND  THE 
PROPHETS 


VII 

SAINT  DAVID  AND  THE 
PROPHETS 

GOD  grants  prayers  gladly.  In  the  mo- 
ment that  Death  was  aiming  at  him  a 
missile  of  down,  Hughes- Jones  prayed: 
"  Bad  I've  been.  Don't  let  me  fall  into 
the  Fiery  Pool.  Give  me  a  brief  while 
and  a  grand  one  I'll  be  for  the  religion." 
A  shaft  of  fire  came  out  of  the  mouth  of 
the  Lord  and  the  shaft  stood  in  the  way  of 
the  missile,  consuming  it  utterly;  "so," 
said  the  Lord,  "  are  his  offenses  for- 
gotten." 

"  Is  it  a  light  thing,"  asked  Paul,  "  to 
defy  the  Law?  " 

"  God  is  merciful,"  said  Moses. 

"  Is  the  Kingdom  for  such  as  pray  con- 
veniently? " 

"  This,"     Moses     reproved     Paul,     "  is 

131 


132  MY    NEIGHBORS 

written  in  a  book:  '  The  Lord  shall  judge 
His  people.' ' 

Yet  Paul  continued  to  dispute,  the 
Prophets  gathering  near  him  for  enter- 
tainment; and  the  company  did  not 
break  up  until  God,  as  is  the  custom  in 
Heaven  when  salvation  is  wrought,  pro- 
claimed a  period  of  rejoicing. 

Wherefore  Heaven's  windows,  the 
number  of  which  is  more  than  that  of 
blades  of  grass  in  the  biggest  hayfield, 
were  lit  as  with  a  flame;  and  Heman  and 
his  youths  touched  their  instruments  with 
fingers  and  hammers  and  the  singing 
angels  lifted  their  voices  in  song;  and 
angels  in  the  likeness  of  young  girls 
brewed  tea  in  urns  and  angels  in  the  like- 
ness of  old  women  baked  pleasant  breads 
in  the  heavenly  ovens.  Out  of  Hell  there 
arose  two  mountains,  which  established 
themselves  one  over  the  other  on  the  floor 
of  Heaven,  and  the  height  of  the  moun- 
tains was  the  depth  of  Hell;  and  you 
could  not  see  the  sides  of  the  mountains 


DAVID  AND   THE  PROPHETS     133 

for  the  vast  multitude  of  sinners  thereon, 
and  you  could  not  see  the  sinners  for  the 
live  coals  to  which  they  were  held,  and  you 
could  not  see  the  burning  coals  for  the 
radiance  of  the  pulpit  which  was  set  on 
the  furthermost  peak  of  the  mountain, 
and  you  could  not  see  the  pulpit — from 
toe  to  head  it  was  of  pure  gold — for  the 
shining  countenance  of  Isaiah;  and  as 
Isaiah  preached,  blood  issued  out  of  the 
ends  of  his  fingers  from  the  violence  with 
which  he  smote  his  Bible,  and  his  single 
voice  was  louder  than  the  lamentations 
of  the  damned. 

As  the  Lord  had  enjoined,  the  inhabi- 
tants of  Heaven  rejoiced:  eating  and 
drinking,  weeping  and  crying  hosanna. 

But  Paul  would  not  joy  over  that  which 
the  Lord  had  done,  and  soon  he  sought 
Him,  and  finding  Him  said:  "A  certain 
Roman  noble  labored  his  horses  to  their 
death  in  a  chariot  race  before  Caesar:  was 
he  worthy  of  Caesar's  reward  ? " 

"  The  noble   is   on  the  mountain-side," 


134  MY    NEIGHBORS 

God  answered,  "  and  his  horses  are  in  my 
chariots." 

"  One  bears  witness  to  his  own  iniquity, 
and  you  bid  us  feast  and  you  say  '  He 
shall  have  remembrance  of  me.' ' 

"  Is  there  room  in  Heaven  for  a  false 
witness? "  asked  God. 

Again  did  Paul  seek  God.  "  My  Lord," 
he  entreated,  "  what  manner  of  man  is 
this  that  confesses  his  faults?" 

'  You  will  provoke  my  wrath,"  said  God. 
"  Go  and  be  merry." 

Paul's  face  being  well  turned,  God 
moved  backward  into  the  Record  Office, 
and  of  the  Clerk  of  the  Records  He  de- 
manded :  "  Who  is  he  that  prayed  unto 
me?" 

"  William  Hughes- Jones,"  replied  the 
Clerk. 

"  Has  the  Forgiving  Angel  blotted  out 
his  sins? " 

"  For  that  I  have  fixed  a  long  space  of 
time  " ;  and  the  Clerk  showed  God  eleven 
heavy  books,  on  the  outside  of  each  of 


DAVID  AND   THE   PROPHETS      135 

which  was  written:  "William  Hughes- 
Jones,  One  and  All  Drapery  Store, 
Hammersmith.  His  sins " ;  and  God 
examined  the  books  and  was  pleased,  and 
He  cried:  "Rejoice  fourfold";  and  if 
Isaiah's  roar  was  higher  than  the  wailings 
of  the  perished  it  was  now  more  awful 
than  the  roar  of  a  hundred  bullocks  in 
a  slaughter-house,  and  if  Isaiah's  coun- 
tenance shone  more  than  anything  in 
Heaven,  it  was  now  like  the  eye  of  the 
sun. 

"Of  what  nation  is  he?"  the  Lord 
inquired  of  the  Clerk. 

"The  Welsh;  the  Welsh  Noncon- 
formists." 

"  Put  before  me  their  good  deeds." 

'  There  is  none.  William  Hughes- 
Jones  is  the  first  of  them  that  has  prayed. 
Are  not  the  builders  making  a  chamber 
for  the  accounts  of  their  disobedience? " 

Immediately  God  thundered:  the  earth 
trembled  and  the  stars  shivered  and  fled 
from  their  courses  and  struck  against  one 


136  MY    NEIGHBORS 

another;  and  God  stood  on  the  brim  of  the 
universe  and  stretched  out  a  hand  and  a 
portion  of  a  star  fell  into  it,  and  that  is 
the  portion  which  He  hurled  into  the 
garden  of  Hughes-Jones's  house.  On  a 
sudden  the  revels  ceased:  the  bread  of  the 
feast  was  stone  and  the  tea  water,  and  the 
songs  of  the  angels  were  hushed,  and  the 
strings  of  the  harps  and  viols  were  with- 
ered, and  the  hammers  were  dough,  and 
the  mountains  sank  into  Hell,  and  behold 
Satan  in  the  pulpit  which  was  an  iron 
cage. 

The  Prophets  hurried  into  the  Judg- 
ment Hall  with  questions,  and  lo  God  was 
in  a  cloud,  and  He  spoke  out  of  the 
cloud. 

"  I  am  angry,"  He  said,  "  that  Welsh 
Nonconformists  have  not  heard  my  name. 
Who  are  the  Welsh  Nonconformists  ? " 
The  Prophets  were  silent,  and  God 
mourned :  "  My  Word  is  the  earth  and  I 
peopled  the  earth  with  my  spittle;  and  I 
appointed  my  Prophets  to  watch  over  my 


DAVID  AND   THE   PROPHETS      137 

people,  and  the  watchers  slept  and  my  chil- 
dren strayed." 

Thus  too  said  the  Lord:  "That  hour 
I  devour  my  children  who  have  forsaken 
me,  that  hour  I  shall  devour  my 
Prophets," 

"  May  be  there  is  one  righteous  among 
us? "  said  Moses. 

"  You  have  all  erred." 

"  May  be  there  is  one  righteous  among 
the  Nonconformists,"  said  Moses;  "will 
the  just  God  destroy  him?" 

'  The  one  righteous  is  humbled,  and  I 
have  warned  him  to  keep  my  command- 
ments." 

;<  The  sown  seed  brought  forth  a 
prayer,"  Moses  pleaded ;  "  will  not  the 
just  God  wait  for  the  harvest?" 

"  My  Lord  is  just,"  Paul  announced. 
:<  They  who  gather  wickedness  shall  not 
escape  the  judgment,  nor  shall  the  blind 
instructor  be  held  blameless." 

Moreover  Paul  said:  "  The  Welsh  Non- 
conformists have  been  informed  of  you  as 


138  MY    NEIGHBORS 

is  proved  by  the  man  who  confessed  his 
transgressions.  It  is  a  good  thing  for  me 
that  I  am  not  of  the  Prophets." 

"  I'll  be  your  comfort,  Paul,"  the 
Prophets  murmured,  "  that  you  have  done 
this  to  our  hurt."  Abasing  themselves, 
they  tore  their  mantles  and  howled;  and 
God,  piteous  of  their  bowlings,  was  con- 
strained to  say:  "Bring  me  the  prayers 
of  these  people  and  I  will  forget  your 
remissness." 

The  Prophets  ran  hither  and  thither, 
wailing:  "Woe.  Woe.  Woe." 

Sore  that  they  behaved  with  such 
scant  respect,  Paul  herded  them  into  the 
Council  Room.  "Is  it  seemly,"  he  re- 
buked them,  "that  the  Prophets  of  God 
act  like  madmen? " 

"  Our  lot  is  awful,"  said  they. 

"  The  lot  of  the  backslider  is  justifiably 
awful,"  was  Paul's  rejoinder.  '  You  have 
prophesied  too  diligently  of  your  own 
glory." 


DAVID  AND   THE   PROPHETS      139 

'  You  are  learned  in  the  Law,  Paul," 
said  Moses.  "  Make  us  waywise." 

"  Send  abroad  a  messenger  to  preach 
damnation  to  sinners,"  answered  Paul. 
"  For  Heaven,"  added  he,  "  is  the  knowl- 
edge of  Hell." 

So  it  came  to  pass.  From  the  hem  of 
Heaven's  Highway  an  angel  flew  into 
Wales;  and  the  angel,  having  judged  by 
his  sight  and  his  hearing,  returned  to  the 
Council  Room  and  testified  to  the  godli- 
ness of  the  Welsh  Nonconformists.  "  As 
difficult  for  me,"  he  vowed,  "  to  write 
the  feathers  of  my  wings  as  the  sum  of 
their  daily  prayers." 

"  None  has  reached  the  Record  Office," 
said  Paul. 

'  They  are  always  engaged  in  this 
bright  business,"  the  angel  declared,  "  and 
praising  the  Lord.  And  the  number  of 
the  people  is  many  and  Heaven  will  need 
be  enlarged  for  their  coming." 

"  Of  a  surety  they  pray? "  asked  Paul. 


140  MYNEIGHBORS 

"  Of  a  surety.  And  as  they  pray  they 
quake  terribly." 

"  The  Romans  prayed  hardly,"  said 
Paul.  "  But  they  prayed  to  other 
gods." 

"Wherever  you  stand  on  their  land," 
asserted  the  angel,  "  you  see  a  temple." 

"  I  exceedingly  fear,"  Paul  remarked, 
"  that  another  Lord  has  dominion  over 
them." 

The  Prophets  were  alarmed,  and  they 
sent  a  company  of  angels  over  the  earth 
and  a  company  under  the  earth;  and  the 
angels  came  back ;  one  company  said :  "  We 
searched  the  swampy  marges  and  saw 
neither  a  god  nor  a  heaven  nor  any 
prayer,"  and  the  other  company  said: 
"We  probed  the  lofty  emptiness  and  we 
did  not  touch  a  god  or  a  heaven  or  any 
prayer." 

Paul  was  distressed  and  he  reported  his 
misgivings  to  God,  and  God  upbraided 
the  Prophets  for  their  sloth.  "  Is  there 
no  one  who  can  do  this  for  me?"  He 


DAVID  AND   THE   PROPHETS      141 

cried.  "Are  all  the  cunning  men  in  Hell? 
Shall  I  make  all  Heaven  drink  the  dregs 
of  my  fury?  Burnish  your  rusted  armor. 
Depart  into  Hell  and  cry  out :  '  Is  there 
one  here  who  knows  the  Welsh  Noncon- 
formists?' Choose  the  most  crafty  and 
release  him  and  lead  him  here." 

Lots  were  cast  and  it  fell  to  Moses  to 
descend  into  Hell;  and  he  stood  at  the 
well,  the  water  of  which  is  harder  than 
crystal,  and  he  cried  out;  and  of  the 
many  that  professed  he  chose  Saint  David, 
whom  he  brought  up  to  God. 

'  Visit  your  people,"  said  God  to  the 
Saint,  "  and  bring  me  their  prayers." 

"  Why  should  I  be  called? " 

"  It  is  my  will.  My  Prophets  have 
failed  me,  and  if  it  is  not  done  they  shall 
be  destroyed." 

David  laughed.  "  From  Hell  comes  a 
savior  of  the  Prophets.  In  the  middle  of 
my  discourse  at  the  Judgment  Seat  the 
Prophets  stooped  upon  me.  'To  Hell  with 
him,'  they  screamed." 


142  MY    NEIGHBORS 

"  Perform  faithfully,"  said  the  Lord, 
"  and  you  shall  remain  in  Paradise." 

"  My  Lord  is  gracious!  I  was  a  Prophet 
and  the  living  believe  that  I  am  with  the 
saints.  I  will  retire." 

"  Perform  faithfully  and  you  shall  be  of 
my  Prophets." 

Then  God  took  away  David's  body  and 
nailed  it  upon  a  wall,  and  He  put  wings 
on  the  shoulders  of  his  soul;  and  David 
darted  through  a  cloud  and  landed  on 
earth,  and  having  looked  at  the  filthiness 
of  the  Nonconformists  in  Wales  he  with- 
drew to  London.  But  however  actively 
he  tried  he  could  not  find  a  man  of  God 
nor  the  destination  of  the  fearful  prayers 
of  Welsh  preachers,  grocers,  drapers,  milk- 
men, lawyers,  and  politicians. 

Loth  to  go  to  Hell  and  put  to  a  nonplus, 
David  built  a  nest  in  a  tree  in  Richmond 
Park,  and  he  paused  therein  to  consider 
which  way  to  proceed.  One  day  he  was 
disturbed  by  the  singing  and  preaching  of 
a  Welsh  soldier  who  had  taken  shelter 


DAVID  AND   THE   PROPHETS      143 

from  rain  under  the  tree.  David  came 
down  from  his  nest,  and  when  the  mouth 
of  the  man  was  most  open,  he  plunged 
into  the  fellow's  body.  Henceforward  in 
whatsoever  place  the  soldier  was  there  also 
was  David;  and  the  soldier  carried  him  to 
a  clothier's  shop  in  Putney,  the  sign  of 
the  shop  being  written  in  this  fashion: 

J.  PARKER  LEWIS. 
The  Little  (Gents.  Mercer)  Wonder. 

Crossing  the  threshold,  the  soldier 
shouted:  "How  are  you?" 

The  clothier,  whose  skin  was  as  hide 
which  had  been  scorched  in  a  tanner's  yard, 
bent  over  the  counter.  "  Man  bach,"  he 
exclaimed,  "  glad  am  I  to  see  you.  Pray 
will  I  now  that  you  are  all  Zer  Garnett." 
His  thanksgiving  finished,  he  said :  "  Want- 
ing a  suit  you  do." 

'  Yes,  and  no,"  replied  the  soldier. 
"  Cheap  she  must  be  if  yes." 

*  You  need  one  for  certain.  Shabby  you 
are." 


144  MY    NEIGHBORS 

"  This  is  a  friendly  call.  To  a  low-class 
shop  must  a  poor  tommy  go." 

"Do  you  then  not  be  cheated  by  an 
English  swindler."  The  clothier  raised  his 
thin  voice:  "Kate,  here's  a  strange  boy." 

A  pretty  young  woman,  in  spite  of  her 
snaggled  teeth,  frisked  into  the  room  like 
a  wanton  lamb.  Her  brown  hair  was 
drawn  carelessly  over  her  head,  and  her 
flesh  was  packed  but  loosely. 

"  Serious  me,"  she  cried,  "  Llew  Eevans ! 
Llew  bach,  how  are  you?  Very  big  has  the 
army  made  you  and  strong." 

"  Not  changed  you  are." 

"  No.  The  last  time  you  came  was  to 
see  the  rabbit." 

"Dear  me,  yes.  Have  you  still  got 
her?" 

"  She's  in  the  belly  long  ago,"  said  the 
clothier. 

"  I  have  another  in  her  stead,"  said  Kate. 
"  A  splendid  one.  Would  you  like  to 
fondle  her? " 

"  Why,  yez,"  answered  the  soldier. 


DAVID  AND   THE   PROPHETS      145 

"  Drat  the  old  animal,"  cried  the  clothier. 

'  Too    much    care    you    give    her,    Kate. 

Seven  looks  has   the  deacon   from   Capel 

King's   Cross   had   of   her   and   he   hasn't 

bought  her  yet." 

As  he  spoke  the  clothier  heaped  gar- 
ments on  the  counter. 

"  Put  out  your  arms,"  he  ordered  Kate, 
"  and  take  the  suits  to  a  room  for  Llew 
to  try  on." 

Kate  obeyed,  and  Llew  hymning 
"  Moriah  "  took  her  round  the  waist  and 
embraced  her,  and  the  woman,  hungering 
for  love,  gladly  gave  herself  up.  Soon 
attired  in  a  black  frock  coat,  a  black  waist- 
coat, and  black  trousers,  Llew  stepped  into 
the  shop. 

"A  champion  is  the  rabbit,"  he  said; 
"  and  very  tame." 

"  If  meat  doesn't  come  down,"  said  the 
clothier,  "  in  the  belly  she'll  be  as  well." 

"  Let  me  know  before  you  slay  her. 
Perhaps  I  buy  her.  I  will  study  her 
again." 


146  MY    NEIGHBORS 

The  clothier  gazed  upon  Llew.  '  Tidy 
fit,"  he  said. 

"  A  bargain  you  give  me." 

"Why  for  you  talk  like  that?"  the 
clothier  protested.  "  No  profit  can  I  make 
on  a  Cymro.  As  per  invoice  is  the  cost. 
And  a  latest  style  bowler  hat  I  throw  in." 

Peering  through  Llew's  body,  Saint 
David  saw  that  the  dealer  dealt  treacher- 
ously, and  that  the  money  which  he  got  for 
the  garments  was  two  pounds  over  that 
which  was  proper. 

Llew  walked  away  whistling.  "  A 
simple  fellow  is  the  black,"  he  said  to  him- 
self. '  Three  soverens  was  bad." 

On  the  evening  of  the  next  day — that 
day  being  the  Sabbath — the  soldier  wor- 
shiped in  Cape]  Kingsend;  and  betwixt 
the  sermon  and  the  benediction,  the 
preacher  delivered  this  speech:  'Very 
happy  am  I  to  see  so  many  warriors  here 
once  more.  We  sacrificed  for  them  quite 
a  lot,  and  if  they  have  any  Christianity 
left  in  them  they  will  not  forget  what 


DAVID  AND   THE   PROPHETS      147 

Capel  Kingsend  has  done  and  will  repay 
same  with  interest.  Happier  still  we  are 
to  welcome  Mister  Hughes-Jones  to  the 
Big  Seat.  In  the  valley  of  the  shadow 
has  Mister  Hughes-Jones  been.  Earnestly 
we  prayed  for  our  dear  religious  leader. 
To-morrow  at  seven  we  shall  hold  a  prayer 
meeting  for  his  cure.  At  seven  at  night. 
Will  everybody  remember?  On  Monday 
— to-morrow — at  seven  at  night  a  prayer 
meeting  for  Mister  Hughes-Jones  will  be 
held  in  Capel  Kingsend.  The  duty  of 
every  one  is  to  attend.  Will  you  please 
say  something  now,  zer?" 

Hughes-Jones  rose  from  the  arm-chair 
which  is  under  the  pulpit,  and  thrust  out 
his  bristled  chin  and  rested  his  palms  on 
the  communion  table;  and  he  said  not  one 
word. 

"  Mister  Hughes-Jones,"  the  preacher 
urged. 

"  I  am  too  full  of  grace,"  said  Hughes- 
Jones;  he  spoke  quickly,  as  one  who  is 
on  the  verge  of  tears,  and  his  big  nostrils 


148  MY    NEIGHBORS 

widened  and  narrowed  as  those  of  one 
who  is  short  of  breath. 

:<  The  congregation,  zer,  expects " 

'  Well-well,  I've  had  a  glimpse  of  the 
better  land  and  with  a  clear  conscience  I 
could  go  there,  only  the  Great  Father  has 
more  for  me  to  do  here.  A  miracle  hap- 
pened to  me.  In  the  thick  of  my  sickness 
a  meetority  dropped  outside  the  bedroom. 
The  mistress  fainted  slap  bang.  '  If 
this  is  my  summons/  I  said,  '  I  am 
ready.'  A  narrow  squeak  that  was.  I 
will  now  sit  and  pray  for  you  one  and 
all." 

In  the  morning  Llew  went  to  the  One 
and  All  and  in  English — that  is  the  tongue 
of  the  high  Welsh — did  he  address 
Hughes-Jones. 

"  I've  come  to  start,  zer,"  he  said. 

'  Why  wassn't  you  in  the  chapel  yezter- 
day? " 

"  I  wass  there,  zer." 

"  Ho-ho.  For  me  there  are  two  people 
in  the  chapel — me  and  Him." 


DAVID  AND   THE   PROPHETS      149 

'  Yez,  indeed.  Shall  I  gommence 
now? " 

"  Gommence  what? " 

"  My  crib  what  I  leave  to  join  up." 

'  Things  have  changed.  There  has  been 
a  war  on,  mister.  They  are  all  smart 
young  ladies  here  now.  And  it  is  not 
right  to  sack  them  and  shove  them  on  the 
streets." 

"  But " 

"  Don't  answer  back,  or  I'll  have  you 
chucked  from  the  premizes  and  locked  up. 
Much  gratitude  you  show  for  all  I  did  for 
the  soders." 

"  Beg  pardon,  zer." 

:<  We  too  did  our  bits  at  home.  Slaved 
like  horses.  Me  and  the  two  sons.  And 
they  had  to  do  work  of  national  impor- 
tance. Disgraceful  I  call  it  in  a  free  coun- 
try." 

"  I  would  be  much  obliged,  zer,  if  you 
would  take  me  on." 

'  You  left  on  your  own  accord,  didn't 
you?  I  never  take  back  a  hand  that  leave 


150  MY    NEIGHBORS 

on  their  own.  Why  don't  you  be  patriotic 
and  rejoin  and  finish  up  the  Huns? " 

Bowed  down,  the  soldier  made  himself 
drunk,  and  the  drink  enlivened  his  dis- 
mettled  heart;  and  in  the  evening  he  stole 
into  the  loft  which  is  above  the  Big  Seat 
of  Capel  Kingsend,  purposing  to  disturb 
the  praying  men  with  loud  curses. 

But  Llew  slept,  and  while  he  slept  the 
words  of  the  praying  men  came  through 
the  ceiling  like  the  pieces  of  a  child's  jig- 
saw puzzle;  some  floated  sluggishly  and 
fell  upon  the  wall  and  the  roof,  and  some 
because  of  their  little  strength  did  not  reach 
above  the  floor ;  and  none  went  through  the 
roof.  Saint  David  closed  his  hands  on 
many,  and  there  was  no  soundness  in  them, 
and  they  became  as  though  they  were 
nothing.  He  formed  a  bag  of  the  sol- 
dier's handkerchief,  and  he  filled  it  with 
the  words,  but  as  he  drew  to  the  edges 
they  crumbled  into  less  than  dust. 

He  pondered;  and  he  made  a  sack  out 
of  cobwebs,  and  when  the  sack  could  not 


DAVID  AND   THE   PROPHETS      151 

contain  any  more  words,  he  wove  a  lid  of 
cobwebs  over  the  mouth  of  it.  Jealous 
that  no  mishap  should  befall  his  treasure, 
he  mounted  a  low,  slow-moving  cloud,  and 
folding  his  wings  rode  up  to  the  Gate  of 
the  Highway. 


JOSEPH'S  HOUSE 


VIII 
JOSEPH'S  HOUSE 

A  WOMAN  named  Madlen,  who  lived  in 
Penlan — the  crumbling  mud  walls  of  which 
are  in  a  nook  of  the  narrow  lane  that  rises 
from  the  valley  of  Bern — was  concerned 
about  the  future  state  of  her  son  Joseph. 
Men  who  judged  themselves  worthy  to 
counsel  her  gave  her  such  counsels  as  these: 
"  Blower  bellows  for  the  smith,"  "  Cobblar 
clox,"  "  Booboo  for  crows." 

Madlen  flattered  her  counselors,  though 
none  spoke  that  which  was  pleasing  unto 
her. 

"  Cobblar  clox,  ach  y  fy,"  she  cried  to 
herself.  '  Wan  is  the  lad  bach  with  de- 
cline. And  unbecoming  to  his  Nuncle 
Essec  that  he  follows  low  tasks." 

Moreover,  people,  look  you  at  John 
Lewis.  Study  his  marble  gravestone  in 
the  burial  ground  of  Capel  Sion:  "His 

155 


156  MY    NEIGHBORS 

name  is  John  Newton-Lewis ;  Paris  House, 
London,  his  address.  From  his  big  shop 
in  Putney,  Home  they  brought  him  by 
railway."  Genteel  are  shops  for  boys  who 
are  consumptive.  Always  dry  are  their 
coats  and  feet,  and  they  have  white  cuffs 
on  their  wrists  and  chains  on  their  waist- 
coats. Not  blight  nor  disease  nor  frost 
can  ruin  their  sellings.  And  every  minute 
their  fingers  grabble  in  the  purses  of 
nobles. 

So  Madlen  thought,  and  having  acted 
in  accordance  with  her  design,  she  took 
her  son  to  the  other  side  of  Avon  Bern, 
that  is  to  Capel  Mount  Moriah,  over  which 
Essec  her  husband's  brother  lorded;  and 
him  she  addressed  decorously,  as  one  does 
address  a  ruler  of  the  capel. 

:<  Your  help  I  seek,"  she  said. 

"  Poor  is  the  reward  of  the  Big 
Preacher's  son  in  this  part,"  Essec  an- 
nounced. "  A  lot  of  atheists  they  are." 

"  Not  pleading  I  have  not  the  rent  am 
I,"  said  Madlen.  "How  if  I  prentice 


JOSEPH'S    HOUSE  157 

Joseph  to   a   shop   draper.     Has   he   any 
odds?" 

"  Proper  that  you  seek,"  replied  Essec. 
"  Seekers  we  all  are.  Sit  you.  No  room 
there  is  for  Joseph  now  I  am  selling 
Penlan." 

"  Like  that  is  the  plan  of  your  head? " 
Madlen  murmured,  concealing  her  dread. 

"  Seven  of  pounds  of  rent  is  small.  Sell 
at  eighty  I  must." 

'  Wait  for  Joseph  to  prosper.  Buy 
then  he  will.  Buy  for  your  mam  you 
will,  Joseph? " 

"  Sorry  I  cannot  change  my  think," 
Essec  declared. 

"  Hard  is  my  lot ;  no  male  have  I  to 
ease  my  burden." 

"  A  weighty  responsibility  my  brother 
put  on  me,"  said  Essec.  '  Dying  with 
old  decline  I  am,'  the  brother  mouthed. 
*  Fruitful  is  the  soil.  Watch  Madlen  keeps 
her  fruitful.'  But  I  am  generous.  Eight 
shall  be  the  rent.  Are  you  not  the  wife  of 
my  flesh?" 


158  MY    NEIGHBORS 

After  she  had  wiped  away  her  tears, 
"  Be  kind,"  said  Madlen,  "  and  wisdom  it 
to  Joseph." 

"  The  last  evening  in  the  seiet  I  com- 
manded the  congregation  to  give  the  Big 
Man's  photograph  a  larger  hire,"  said 
Essec.  "  A  few  of  my  proverbs  I  will 
now  spout."  He  spat  his  spittle  and 
bundling  his  beard  blew  the  residue  of  his 
nose  therein ;  and  he  chanted :  "  Remember 
Essec  Pugh,  whose  right  foot  is  tied  into 
a  club  knot.  Here's  the  club  to  kick  sin- 
ners as  my  perished  brother  tried  to  kick 
the  Bad  Satan  from  the  inside  of  his  fe- 
male Madlen  with  his  club  of  his  baston. 
Some  preachers  search  over  the  Word. 
Some  preachers  search  in  the  Word.  But 
search  under  the  Word  does  preacher 
Capel  Moriah.  What's  the  light  I  find? 
A  stutterer  was  Moses.  As  the  middle  of 
a  butter  cask  were  the  knees  of  Paul.  A 
splotch  like  a  red  cabbage  leaf  was  on  the 
cheek  of  Solomon.  By  the  signs  shall  the 
saints  be  known.  '  Preacher  Club  Foot, 


JOSEPH'S    HOUSE  159 

come  forward  to  tell  about  Moriah,'  the 
Big  Man  will  say.  Mean  scamps,  remem- 
ber Essec  Pugh,  for  I  shall  remember  you 
the  Day  of  Rising." 

It  came  to  be  that  on  a  morning  in  the 
last  month  of  his  thirteenth  year  Joseph 
was  bidden  to  stand  at  the  side  of  the 
cow  which  Madlen  was  milking  and  to  give 
an  ear  to  these  commandments:  "  The  ser- 
pent is  in  the  bottom  of  the  glass.  The 
hand  on  the  tavern  window  is  the  hand  of 
Satan.  On  the  Sabbath  eve  get  one  penny 
for  two  ha'pennies  for  the  plate  collection. 
Put  money  in  the  handkerchief  corner. 
Say  to  persons  you  are  a  nephew  of  Re- 
spected Essec  Pugh  and  you  will  have 
credit.  Pick  the  white  sixpence  from  the 
floor  and  give  her  to  the  mishtir;  she  will 
have  fallen  from  his  pocket  trowis." 

Then  Joseph  turned,  and  carrying  his 
yellow  tin  box,  he  climbed  into  the  craggy 
moorland  path  which  takes  you  to  the 
tramping  road.  By  the  pump  of  Tavarn 
Ffos  he  rested  until  Shim  Carrier  came 


160  MY    NEIGHBORS 

thereby;  and  while  Shim's  horse  drank  of 
barley  water,  Joseph  stepped  into  the 
wagon;  and  at  the  end  of  the  passage 
Shim  showed  him  the  business  of  getting 
a  ticket  and  that  of  going  into  and  coming 
down  from  a  railway  carriage. 

In  that  manner  did  Joseph  go  to  the 
drapery  shop  of  Rees  Jones  in  Car- 
marthen; and  at  the  beginning  he  was 
instructed  in  the  keeping  and  the  selling 
of  such  wares  as  reels  of  cotton,  needles, 
pins,  bootlaces,  mending  wool,  buttons,  and 
such  like — all  those  things  which  together 
are  known  as  haberdashery.  He  marked 
how  this  and  that  were  done,  and  in  what 
sort  to  fashion  his  visage  and  frame  his 
phrases  to  this  or  that  woman.  His  on- 
coming was  rapid.  He  could  measure,  cut, 
and  wrap  in  a  parcel  twelve  yards  of 
brown  or  white  calico  quicker  than  any 
one  in  the  shop,  and  he  understood  by  rote 
the  folds  of  linen  tablecloths  and  bedsheets ; 
and  in  the  town  this  was  said  of  him: 


JOSEPH'S    HOUSE  161 

"  Shopmen  quite  ordinary  can  sell  what  a 
customer  wants;  Pugh  Rees  Jones  can  sell 
what  nobody  wants." 

The  first  year  passed  happily,  and  the 
second  year;  and  in  the  third  Joseph  was 
stirred  to  go  forward. 

'What  use  to  stop  here  all  the  life?" 
he  asked  himself.  "  Better  to  go  off." 

He  put  his  belongings  in  his  box  and 
went  to  Swansea. 

'  Very  busy  emporium  I  am  in,"  were 
the  words  he  sent  to  Madlen.  "  And  the 
wage  is  twenty  pounds." 

Madlen  rejoiced  at  her  labor  and  sang: 
*  Ten  acres  of  land,  and  a  cow-house  with 
three  stalls  and  a  stall  for  the  new  calf,  and 
a  pigsty,  and  a  house  for  my  bones  and  a 
barn  for  my  hay  and  straw,  and  a  loft 
for  my  hens:  why  should  men  pray  for 
more? "  She  ambled  to  Moriah,  diverting 
passers-by  with  boastful  tales  of  Joseph, 
and  loosened  her  imaginings  to  the  Re- 
spected. 


162  MY    NEIGHBORS 

"  Pounds  without  number  he  is  earn- 
ing," she  cried.  "  Rich  he'll  be.  Swells 
are  youths  shop." 

"  Gifts  from  the  tip  of  my  tongue  fell 
on  him,"  said  Essec.  "  Religious  were  my 
gifts." 

"  Iss,  indeed,  the  brother  of  the  male 
husband." 

"  Now  you  can  afford  nine  of  pounds 
for  the  place.  Rich  he  is  and  richer  he 
will  be.  Pounds  without  number  he 
has." 

Madlen  made  a  record  of  Essec's 
scheme  for  Joseph;  and  she  said  also: 
"  Proud  I'll  be  to  shout  that  my  son  bach 
bought  Penlan." 

"  Setting  aside  money  am  I,"  Joseph 
speedily  answered. 

Again  ambition  aroused  him.  "  Footling 
is  he  that  is  content  with  Zwanssee.  Next 
half -holiday  skurshon  I'll  crib  in  Car- 
diff." 

Joseph  gained  his  desire,  and  the 
chronicle  of  his  doings  he  sent  to  his 


JOSEPH'S    HOUSE  163 

mother.  "  Twenty-five,  living-in,  and 
spiffs  on  remnants  are  the  wages,"  he 
said.  "  In  the  flannelette  department  I 
am  and  I  have  not  been  fined  once.  Lot 
of  English  I  hear,  and  we  call  ladies 
madam  that  the  wedded  nor  the  unwedded 
are  insulted.  Boys  harmless  are  the  eight 
that  sleep  by  me.  Examine  Nuncle  of  the 
price  of  Penlan." 

"  I  will  wag  my  tongue  craftily  and 
slowly,"  Madlen  vowed  as  she  crossed  her 
brother-in-law's  threshold. 

"  I  Shire  Pembroke  land  is  cheap,"  she 
said  darkly. 

"  Look  you  for  a  farm  there,"  said 
Essec.  "  Pelted  with  offers  am  I  for  Pen- 
lan. Ninety  I  shall  have.  Poverty  makes 
me  sell  very  soon." 

"As  he  says." 

"  Pretty  tight  is  Joseph  not  to  buy  her. 
No  care  has  he  for  his  mam." 

"  Stiffish  are  affairs  with  him,  poor 
dab." 

Madlen  reported  to  Joseph  that  which 


164  MY    NEIGHBORS 

Essec  had  said,  and  she  added:  "Awful 
to  leave  the  land  of  your  father.  And 
auction  the  cows.  Even  the  red  cow  that 
is  a  champion  for  milk.  Where  shall  I 
go?  The  House  of  the  Poor.  Horrid  that 
your  mam  must  go  to  the  House  of  the 
Poor." 

Joseph  sat  on  his  bed,  writing:  "  Taken 
ten  pounds  from  the  post  I  have  which 
leaves  three  shillings.  Give  Nuncle  the 
ten  as  earnest  of  my  intention." 

Nine  years  after  that  day  on  which  he 
had  gone  to  Carmarthen  Joseph  said  in 
his  heart:  "  London  shops  for  experience  "; 
and  he  caused  a  frock  coat  to  be  sewn  to- 
gether, and  he  bought  a  silk  hat  and  an 
umbrella,  and  at  the  spring  cribbing  he 
walked  into  a  shop  in  the  West  End  of 
London,  asking:  "  Can  I  see  the  engager, 
pleaze? "  The  engager  came  to  him  and 
Joseph  spoke  out :  "  I  have  all-round  ex- 
perience. Flannelettes  three  years  in 
Niclass,  Cardiff,  and  left  on  my  own  ac- 
cord. Kept  the  colored  dresses  in  Tomos, 


JOSEPH'S    HOUSE  165 

Zwanssee.  And  served  through.  Appren- 
tized  in  Reez  Jones  Carmarthen  for  three 
years.  Refs  egzellent.  Good  ztok-keeper 
and  appearance." 

"  Start  at  nine  o'clock  Monday  morn- 
ing," the  engager  replied.  "  Thirty  pounds 
a  year  and  spiffs;  to  live  in.  You'll  be  in 
the  laces." 

"  Fashionable  this  shop  is,"  Joseph  wrote 
to  Madlen,  "  and  I  have  to  be  smart  and 
wear  a  coat  like  the  preachers,  and  mustn't 
take  more  than  three  zwap  lines  per  day 
or  you  have  the  sack.  Two  white  shirts 
per  week;  and  the  dresses  of  the  showroom 
young  ladies  are  a  treat.  Five  pounds  en- 
closed for  Nuncle." 

"  Believe  your  mam,"  Madlen  answered : 
"  don't  throw  gravel  at  the  windows  of  the 
old  English  unless  they  have  the  fortunes." 

In  his  zeal  for  his  mother's  welfare 
Joseph  was  heedless  of  himself,  eating  little 
of  the  poor  food  that  was  served  him, 
clothing  his  body  niggardly,  and  seldom 
frequenting  public  bath-houses;  his  mind 


166  MY    NEIGHBORS 

spanned  his  purpose,  choosing  the  fields  he 
would  join  to  Penlan,  counting  the  number 
of  cattle  that  would  graze  on  the  land, 
planning  the  slate-tiled  house  which  he 
would  set  up. 

"  Twenty  pounds  more  must  I  have," 
he  moaned,  "  for  the  blaguard  Nuncle." 

Every  day  thereafter  he  stole  a  little 
money  from  his  employers  and  every  night 
he  made  peace  with  God:  "  Only  twenty- 
five  is  the  wage,  and  spiffs  don't  count  be- 
cause of  the  fines.  Don't  you  let  me  be 
found  out,  Big  Man  bach.  Will  you  strike 
mam  into  her  grave?  And  disgrace  Re- 
spected Essec  Pugh  Capel  Moriah? " 

He  did  not  abate  his  energies  howso- 
ever hard  his  disease  was  wasting  and  de- 
stroying him.  The  men  who  lodged  in  his 
bedroom  grew  angry  with  him.  "  How  can 
we  sleep  with  your  dam  coughing?"  they 
cried.  '  Why  don't  you  invest  in  a  second- 
hand coffin? " 

Feared  that  the  women  whom  he  served 
would  complain  that  the  poison  of  his 


JOSEPH'S    HOUSE  167 

sickness  was  tainting  them  and  that  he 
would  be  sent  away,  Joseph  increased  his 
pilferings;  where  he  had  stolen  a  shilling 
he  now  stole  two  shillings;  and  when  he 
got  five  pounds  above  the  sum  he  needed, 
he  heaved  a  deep  sigh  and  said :  "  Thank 
you  for  your  favor,  God  bach.  I  will  now 
go  home  to  heal  myself." 

Madlen  took  the  money  to  Essec,  com- 
ing back  heavy  with  grief. 

"  Hoo-hoo,"  she  whined,  "  the  ninety  has 
bought  only  the  land.  Selling  the  houses 
is  Essec." 

'  Wrong  there  is,"  said  Joseph.  "  Probe 
deeply  we  must." 

From  their  puzzlings  Madlen  said: 
"What  will  you  do?" 

"  Go  and  charge  swindler  Moriah." 

"  Meddle  not  with  him.  Strong  he  is 
with  the  Lord." 

'  Teach  him  will  I  to  pocket  my  honest 
wealth." 

Because  of  his  weakness,  Joseph  did  not 
go  to  Moriah;  to-day  he  said:  "I  will  to- 


168  MY    NEIGHBORS 

morrow,"  and  to-morrow  he  said:  "  Certain 
enough  I'll  go  to-morrow." 

In  the  twilight  of  an  afternoon  he  and 
Madlen  sat  down,  gazing  about,  and  speak- 
ing scantily;  and  -the  same  thought  was 
with  each  of  them,  and  this  was  the 
thought :  "A  tearful  prayer  will  remove 
the  Big  Man  from  His  judgment,  but 
nothing  will  remove  Essec  from  his  pur- 
pose." 

"  Mam  f  ach,"  said  Joseph,  "  how  will 
things  be  with  you?  " 

"  Sorrow  not,  soul  nice,"  Madlen  en- 
treated her  son.  "  Couple  of  weeks  very 
short  have  I  to  live." 

"  As  an  hour  is  my  space.  Who  will 
stand  up  for  you?  " 

"  Hish,  now.  Hish-hish,  my  little 
heart." 

Madlen  sighed ;  and  at  the  door  she  made 
a  great  clatter,  and  the  sound  of  the  clatter 
was  less  than  the  sound  of  her  wailing. 

"Mam!  Mam!"  Joseph  shouted. 
"  Don't  you  scream.  Hap  you  will  soften 


JOSEPH'S   HOUSE  169 

Nuncle's  heart  if  you  say  to  him  that  my 
funeral  is  close." 

Madlen  put  a  mourning  gown  over  her 
petticoats  and  a  mourning  bodice  over 
her  shawls,  and  she  tarried  in  a  field  as 
long  as  it  would  take  her  to  have  traveled 
to  Moriah;  and  in  the  heat  of  the  sun  she 
returned,  laughing. 

"  Mistake,  mistake,"  she  cried.  "  The 
houses  are  ours.  No  undertanding  was  in 
me.  Cross  was  your  Nuncle.  '  Terrible  if 
Joseph  is  bad  with  me,'  he  said.  Man 
religious  and  tidy  is  Essec."  Then  she 
prayed  that  Joseph  would  die  before  her 
fault  was  found  out. 

Joseph  did  not  know  what  to  do  for 
his  joy.  "Well-well,  there's  better  I  am 
already,"  he  said.  He  walked  over  the 
land  and  coveted  the  land  of  his  neigh- 
bors. "Dwell  here  for  ever  I  shall,"  he 
cried  to  Madlen.  "  A  grand  house  I'll 
build — almost  as  grand  as  the  houses  of 
preachers." 

In  the  fifth  night  he  died,  and  before 


170  MY    NEIGHBORS 

she  began  to  weep,  Madlen  lifted  her  voice : 
'  There's    silly,     dear    people,     to    covet 
houses!    Only  a  smallish  bit  of  house  we 
want." 


LIKE  BROTHERS 


IX 
LIKE  BROTHERS 

SILAS  BOWEN  hated  his  brother  John,  but 
when  he  heard  of  John's  sickness,  he  reas- 
oned: "Blackish  has  been  his  dealings. 
And  trickish.  Sly  also.  Odd  will  affairs 
seem  if  I  don't  go  to  him  at  once." 

At  the  proper  hour  he  closed  the  door 
of  his  shop.  Then  he  washed  his  face, 
and  put  beeswax  on  the  dwindling  points 
of  his  mustache,  and  he  came  out  of 
Barnes  into  Thornton  East;  into  High 
Road,  where  is  his  brother's  shop. 

'  That  is  you,"  said  John  to  him. 

"  How  was  you,  man? "  Silas  asked. 
;<  Talk  the  name  of  the  old  malady." 

"  Say  what  you  have  to  say  in  English," 
John  answered  in  a  little  voice.  "It  is 
feasier  and  classier." 

That  which  was  spoken  was  rendered 
into  English;  and  John  replied:  "I  am 

173 


174  MY    NEIGHBORS 

pleazed  to  see  you.  Take  the  bowler  off 
your  head  and  don't  put  her  on  the 
harimonium.  The  zweat  will  mark  the 
wood.'* 

"  The  love  of  brothers  push  me  here," 
said  Silas.  "  It  is  past  understanding. 
As  boyss  we  learn  the  same  pray-yer. 
And  we  talked  the  same  temperance 
dialogue  in  Capel  Zion.  I  was  always  the 
temperance  one.  And  quite  a  champion 
reziter.  The  way  is  round  and  about,  boy 
bach,  from  Zion  to  the  grave." 

"  Don't  speak  like  that,"  pleaded  John. 
"  I  caught  a  cold  going  to  the  City  to  get 
ztok.  I  will  be  healthy  by  the  beginning 
of  the  week." 

"  Be  it  so.  Yet  I  am  full  of  your 
trouble.  Sick  you  are  and  how's 
trade? " 

"  Very  brisk.  I  am  opening  a  shop  in 
Richmond  again,"  John  said. 

*  You're  learning  me  something.  Don't 
you  think  too  much  of  that  shop;  Death  is 
near  and  set  your  mind  on  the  crossing." 


LIKE    BROTHERS  175 

John's  lame  daughter  Ann  halted 
into  the  room,  and  stepped  up  to  the 
bed. 

"  Stand  by  the  door  for  one  minit, 
Silas,"  John  cried.  "  I  am  having  my 
chat  confidential." 

From  a  book  Ann  recited  the  business 
of  that  day;  naming  each  article  that  had 
been  sold,  and  the  cost  and  the  profit 
thereof. 

"  How's    that    with    last    year? "    her 
father  commanded. 
"  Two-fifteen  below." 
"Fool!"   John   whispered.      "You   are 
a  cow,  with  your  gamey  leg.    You're  ruin- 
ing the  place." 

Ann  closed  the  book  and  put  her  foun- 
tain pen  in  the  leather  case  which  was 
pinned  to  her  blouse,  and  she  spoke  this 
greeting:  "  How  are  you,  Nuncle  Silas. 
It's  long  since  I've  seen  you."  She  thrust 
out  her  arched  teeth  in  a  smile.  "  Good- 
night, now.  You  must  call  and  see  our 
Richmond  establishment." 


176  MY    NEIGHBORS 

"  Silas,"  said  John,  "  empty  a  dose  of 
the  medecyne  in  a  cup  for  me." 

"  There's  little  comfort  in  medecyne," 
Silas  observed.  "  Not  much  use  is  the 
stuff  if  the  Lord  is  calling  you  home. 
Calling  you  home.  Shall  I  read  you  a 
piece  from  the  Beybile  of  the  Welsh?  It 
is  a  great  pity  you  have  forgot  the  lan- 
guage of  your  mother." 

"  I  did  not  hear  you,"  said  John. 
"Don't  you  trouble  to  say  it  over."  He 
drank  the  medicine.  "  Unfortunate  was 
the  row  about  the  Mermaid  Agency.  I 
was  sorry  to  take  it  away  from  you,  but 
if  I  hadn't  some  one  else  would.  We  kept 
it  in  the  family,  Silas." 

"  I  have  prayed  a  lot,"  said  Silas  to  his 
brother,  "  that  me  and  you  are  brought  to- 
gether before  the  day  of  the  death.  Noth- 
ing can  break  us  from  being  brothers." 

"  You  are  very  doleful.  I  shall  shift  this 
little  cold." 

"  Yes-yes,  you  will.  I  would  be  glad 
to  follow  your  coffin  to  Wales  and  look 


LIKE    BROTHERS  177 

into  the  guard's  van  at  stations  where 
the  train  stop,  but  the  fare  is  big  and  the 
shop  is  without  a  assistant.  Weep  until 
I  am  sore  all  over  I  shall  in  Capel  Shir- 
land  Road.  When  did  the  doctor  give 
you  up  ? " 

"  He's  a  donkey.  He  doesn't  know 
nothing.  Here  he  is  once  per  day  and 
charging  for  it.  And  he  only  brings  his 
repairs  to  me." 

'  The  largest  charge  will  be  to  take  you 
to  your  blessed  home,"  said  Silas.  '  The 
railway  need  a  lot  of  money  for  to  carry  a 
corpse.  I  feel  quite  sorrowful.  In  Heaven 
you'll  remember  that  I  was  at  your  death- 
bed." 

John  did  not  answer. 
'  Well-well,"     said     Silas,     whispering 
loudly,   "  making  his  peace  with  the   Big 
Man  he  is  " ;  and  he  went  away,  moaning 
a  funereal  hymn  tune. 

John  thought  over  his  plight  and  was 
distressed,  and  he  spoke  to  God  in  Welsh: 
"  Not  fitting  that  you  leave  the  daughter 


178  MY    NEIGHBORS 

fach  alone.  Short  in  her  leg  you  made 
her.  There's  a  set-back.  Her  mother 
perished;  and  did  I  complain?  An  orphan 
will  the  pitiful  wench  be.  Who  will  care 
for  the  shop?  And  the  repairing  workman? 
Steal  the  leather  he  will.  A  fuss  will  be 
about  shop  Richmond.  Paid  have  I  the 
rent  for  one  year  in  advance.  Serious  will 
the  loss  be.  Be  not  of  two  thinks.  Send 
Lisha  to  breathe  breathings  into  my  inside 
— in  the  belly  where  the  heart  is.  Forgive 
me  that  I  go  to  the  Capel  English.  Go 
there  I  do  for  the  trade.  Generous  am  I 
in  the  collections.  Ask  the  preacher.  Take 
some  one  else  to  sit  in  my  chair  in  the 
Palace.  Amen.  Amen  and  amen."  In 
his  misery  he  sobbed,  and  he  would  not 
speak  to  Ann  nor  heed  her  questionings. 
At  the  cold  of  dawn  he  thought  that 
Death  was  creeping  down  to  him,  and  he 
screamed :  "  Allow  me  to  live  for  a  year — 
two  years — and  a  grand  communion  set 
will  I  give  to  the  Welsh  capel  in  Shirland 
Road.  Individual  cups.  Silver-plated, 


LIKE    BROTHERS  179 

Sheffield  make.  Ann  shall  send  quickly  for 
the  price-list." 

His  fear  was  such  that  he  would  not 
suffer  his  beard  to  be  combed,  nor  have 
his  face  covered  by  a  bedsheet;  and  he 
would  not  stretch  himself  or  turn  his  face 
upwards:  in  such  a  manner  dead  men 
lie. 

Again  came  Silas  to  provoke  his  brother 
to  his  death. 

"  Richmond  shops  are  letting  like  any- 
thing," he  said. 

'  The  place  is  coming  on,"  replied  John. 
"  I  was  lucky  to  get  one  in  King's  Row. 
She  is  cheap  too." 

"What  are  you  talking  about?  There's 
a  new  boot  shop  in  King's  Row  already. 
Next  door  to  the  jeweler." 

"  You  are  mistook.  I  have  taken 
her." 

"  Well,  then,  you  are  cheated.  Get 
up  at  once  and  make  a  case.  Wear  an 
overcoat  and  ride  in  the  bus." 

But  John  bade  Ann  go  to  Richmond 


180  MY    NEIGHBORS 

and  to  say  this  and  that  to  the  owner  of 
the  house.  Ann  went  and  the  house  was 
empty. 

A  third  time  Silas  came  out  of  Barnes, 
bringing  with  him  gifts.  These  are  the 
gifts  that  he  offered  his  brother  John:  a 
tin  of  lobster,  a  tin  of  sardines,  a  tin  of 
salmon,  and  a  tin  of  herrings;  and  through 
each  tin,  in  an  unlikely  place,  he  had  driven 
the  point  of  a  gimlet. 

"  Eat  these,"  he  said,  "  and  good  they 
will  do  you." 

"Much  obliged,"  replied  John.  "I'll 
try  a  herring  with  bread  and  butter 
and  vinegar  to  supper.  Very  much 
obliged.  It  was  not  my  blame  that  we 
quarreled.  Others  had  his  eye  on  the 
agency." 

"  Tish,  I  did  not  want  the  old  Mermaid. 
You  keep  her.  I  got  the  sole  agency  for 
the  Gwendoline." 

"  How  is  Gwendolines  going?  " 

"  More  than  I  can  do  to  keep  ztok  of 
her.  Four  dozen  gents'  laces  and  three 


LIKE    BROTHERS  181 

dozen  ladies'  ditto  on  the  twenty-fifth,  and 
soon  I  order  another  four  dozen  ladies' 
buttons." 

John  called  Ann  and  to  her  he  said: 
"How  is  Mermaid  ztok?" 

;<  We  are  almost  out  of  nine  gents  and 
four  ladies,"  answered  Ann. 

"  Write  Nuncle  Silas  the  order  and  he'll 
drop  her  in  the  Zity.  Pay  your  fare  one 
way  will  I,  Silas." 

Silas  fled  the  next  day  into  the  Mermaid 
warehouse  and  sought  out  the  manager. 
"  My  brother  J.  Owen  and  Co.  Thornton 
East  has  sold  his  last  pair  of  Mermaids," 
he  said. 

He  brought  trouble  into  his  eyes  and 
made  his  voice  to  quiver  as  he  told  how 
that  John  was  dying  and  how  that  the 
shop  was  his  brother's  legacy  to  him. 
"  Send  you  the  goods  for  this  order  to 
my  shop  in  Barnes,"  he  added.  "  And 
all  future  orders.  That  will  be  my  head- 
quarters." 

He  did  not  go  to  John's  house  any  more ; 


182  MY    NEIGHBORS 

and  although  John  ate  of  the  lobster,  the 
herrings,  and  the  sardines  and  was  sick,  he 
did  not  die.  A  week  expired  and  a  sound 
reached  him  that  Silas  was  selling  Mermaid 
boots;  and  he  enjoined  Ann  to  test  the 
truth  of  that  sound. 

"  It's  sure  enough,  dad,"  Ann  said. 

John's  fury  tingled.  He  put  on  him 
his  clothes  and  seized  a  stick,  and  by  the 
strength  of  his  passion  he  moved  into 
Barnes;  and  he  pitched  himself  at  the 
entering  in  of  the  shop,  and  he  saw  that 
Ann's  speech  was  right.  He  came  back; 
and  he  did  not  eat  or  drink  or  rest  until 
he  had  removed  all  that  was  in  his  window 
and  had  placed  therein  no  other  boots  than 
the  Mermaids;  and  on  each  pair  he  put  a 
ticket  which  was  truly  marked :  "  Half 
cost  price."  On  his  door  he  put  this  notice: 
"  This  FIRM  has  no  Connection  with  the 
shop  in  Barnes  " ;  and  this  notice  could  be 
seen  and  read  whether  the  door  was  open 
or  shut. 

After  a  period  people  returned  to  him, 


LIKE    BROTHERS  183 

demanding:  "  I  want  a  pair  of  Mermaids, 
please  " ;  and  inasmuch  as  he  had  no  more 
to  sell,  they  who  had  dealt  with  him  went 
to  the  shop  of  his  brother. 


A  WIDOW  WOMAN 


A  WIDOW  WOMAN 

THE  Respected  Davydd  Bern-Davydd 
spoke  in  this  sort  to  the  people  who  were 
assembled  at  the  Meeting  for  Prayer: 
'  Well- well,  know  you  all  the  order  of 
the  service.  Grand  prayers  pray  last. 
Boys  ordinary  pray  middle,  and  bad 
prayers  pray  first.  Boys  bach  just  begin- 
ning also  come  first.  Now,  then,  after  I've 
read  a  bit  from  the  Book  of  Speeches  and 
youVe  sung  the  hymn  I  call  out,  Josi  Mali 
will  report." 

Bern-Davydd  ceased  his  reading,  and 
while  the  congregation  sang,  Josi  placed 
his  arms  on  the  sill  which  is  in  front  of 
pews  and  laid  his  head  thereon. 

"  Josi  Mali,  man,  come  to  the  Big  Seat 
and  mouth  what  you  think,"  said  Bern- 
Davydd. 

187 


188  MY    NEIGHBORS 

Josi's  mother  Mali  touched  her  son, 
whispering  this  counsel:  "Put  to  shame 
the  last  prayer,  indeed  now,  Josi." 

By  and  by  Josi  lifted  his  head  and  stood 
on  his  feet.  This  is  what  he  said :  "  Ask- 
ing was  I  if  I  was  religious  enough  to  spout 
in  the  company  of  the  Respected." 

"  Out  of  the  necks  of  young  youths  we 
hear  pieces  that  are  very  sensible,"  said 
Bern-Davydd.  "  Come  you,  Josi  Mali, 
to  the  saintly  Big  Seat." 

As  Josi  moved  out  of  his  pew,  his  thick 
lips  fallen  apart  and  his  high  cheek  bones 
scarlet,  his  mother  said:  "  Keep  your  eyes 
clapped  very  close,  or  hap  the  prayers  will 
shout  that  you  spoke  from  a  hidden  book 
like  an  old  parson." 

So  Josi,  who  in  the  fields  and  on  his 
bed  had  exercised  prayer  in  the  manner 
that  one  exercises  singing,  uttered  his  first 
petition  in  Capel  Sion.  He  told  the  Big 
Man  to  pardon  the  weakness  of  his  words, 
because  the  trousers  of  manhood  had  not 
been  long  upon  him;  he  named  those  who 


AWIDOWWOMAN  189 

entered  the  Tavern  and  those  who  ate 
bread  which  had  been  swollen  by  barm; 
he  congratulated  God  that  Bern-Davydd 
ruled  over  Sion. 

At  what  time  he  was  done,  Bern- 
Davydd  cried  out:  "Amen.  Solemn,  dear 
me,  amen.  Piece  quite  tidy  of  prayer  " ; 
and  the  men  of  the  Big  Seat  cried:  "  Piece 
quite  tidy  of  prayer." 

The  quality  of  Josi's  prayers  gave  much 
pleasure  in  Sion,  and  it  was  noised  abroad 
even  in  Morfa,  from  whence  a  man  jour- 
neyed, saying:  "  Break  your  hire  with  your 
master  and  be  a  servant  in  my  farm. 
Wanting  a  prayer  very  bad  do  we  in  Capel 
iSalem."  Josi  immediately  asked  leave  of 
God  to  tell  Bern-Davydd  that  which  the 
man  from  Morfa  had  said.  God  gave 
him  leave,  wherefore  Bern-Davydd,  whose 
spirit  waxed  hot,  answered:  "Boy,  boy, 
why  for  did  you  not  kick  the  she  cat  on 
the  backhead? " 

Then  Josi  said  to  his  mother  Mali:  "A 
preacher  will  I  be.  Go  will  I  at  the  finish 


190  MY    NEIGHBORS 

of  my  servant  term  to  the  school  for  Gram- 
mar in  Castellybryn." 

"  Glad  am  I  to  hear  you  talk,"  said  Mali. 
"  Serious  pity  that  my  belongings  are  so 
few." 

"  Small  is  your  knowledge  of  the 
Speeches,"  Josi  rebuked  his  mother. 
"How  go  they:  'Sell  all  that  you  have?' 
Iss-iss,  all,  mam  fach." 

Now  Mali  lived  in  Pencoch,  which  is  in 
the  valley  about  midway  between  Shop 
Rhys  and  the  Schoolhouse,  and  she  rented 
nearly  nine  acres  of  the  land  which  is  on 
the  hill  above  Sion.  Beyond  the  furnish- 
ings of  her  two-roomed  house,  she  owned 
three  cows,  a  heifer,  two  pigs,  and  fowls. 
She  fattened  her  pigs  and  sold  them,  and 
she  sold  also  her  heifer;  and  Josi  went  to 
the  School  of  Grammar.  Mali  labored 
hard  on  the  land,  and  she  got  therefrom  all 
that  there  was  to  be  got;  and  whatever 
that  she  earned  she  hid  in  a  hole  in  the 
ground.  "  Handy  is  little  money,"  she 
murmured,  "  to  pay  for  lodgings  and 


AWIDOWWOMAN  191 

clothes  preacher,  and  the  old  scamps  of 
boys  who  teach  him."  She  lived  on  pota- 
toes and  buttermilk,  and  she  dressed  her 
land  all  the  time.  People  came  to  remark 
of  her:  :'  There's  no  difference  between 
Mall  Pencoch  and  the  mess  in  her  cow- 
house." 

Days,  weeks,  and  months  moved  slowly; 
and  years  sped.  Josi  passed  from  the 
School  of  Grammar  to  College  Car- 
marthen, and  Mali  gave  him  all  the  money 
that  she  had,  and  prayed  thus :  "  Big  Man 
bach,  terrible  would  affairs  be  if  I  per- 
ished before  the  boy  was  all  right.  Let  you 
me  keep  my  strength  that  Josi  becomes  as 
large  as  Bern-Davydd.  Amen." 

Even  so.  Josi  had  a  name  among  Stu- 
dents' College,  and  even  among  ordained 
rulers  of  pulpits;  and  Mali  went  about 
her  duties  joyful  and  glad;  it  was  as  if  the 
Kingdom  of  the  Palace  of  White  Shirts 
was  within  her.  While  at  her  labor  she 
mumbled  praises  to  the  Big  Man  for  His 
goodness,  until  an  awful  thought  came  to 


192  MY    NEIGHBORS 

her:  "  Insulting  am  I  to  the  Large  One 
bach.  Only  preachers  are  holy  enough  to 
stand  in  their  pray.  Not  stop  must  I  now; 
go  on  my  knees  will  I  in  the  dark." 

She  did  not  kneel  on  her  knees  for  the 
stiffness  that  was  in  her  limbs. 

Her  joy  was  increased  exceedingly  when 
Josi  was  called  to  minister  unto  Capel 
Beulah  in  Carmarthen,  and  she  boasted: 
"  Bigger  than  Sion  is  Moriah  and  of  lofts 
has  not  the  Temple  two? " 

"  Idle  is  your  babbling,"  one  admon- 
ished her.  "  Does  a  calf  feed  his 
mother? " 

Josi  heard  the  call.  His  name  grew; 
men  and  women  spoke  his  sayings  one  to 
another,  and  Beulah  could  not  contain 
all  the  people  who  would  hear  his  word; 
and  he  wrote  a  letter  to  his  mother:  "  God 
has  given  me  to  wed  Mary  Ann,  the  daugh- 
ter of  Daniel  Shop  Guildhall.  Kill  you  a 
pig  and  salt  him  and  send  to  me  the  meat." 

All  that  Josi  asked  Mali  gave,  and  more ; 
she  did  not  abate  in  any  of  her  toil  for 


AWIDOWWOMAN  193 

five  years,  when  a  disease  laid  hold  on  Josi 
and  he  died.  Mali  cleaned  her  face  and 
her  hands  in  the  Big  Pistil  from  which 
you  draw  drinking  water,  and  she  brought 
forth  her  black  garments  and  put  them 
on  her;  and  because  of  her  age  she  could 
not  weep.  The  day  before  that  her  son 
was  to  be  buried,  she  went  to  the  house  of 
her  neighbor  Sara  Eye  Glass,  and  to  her 
she  said :  "  Wench  nice,  perished  is  Josi  and 
off  away  am  I.  Console  his  widow  fach  I 
must.  Tell  you  me  that  you  will  milk  my 
cow." 

Sara  turned  her  seeing  eye  upon  Mali. 
"  An  old  woman  very  mad  you  are  to  go 
two  nines  of  miles." 

"  Milk  you  my  cow,"  said  Mali.  "  And 
milk  you  her  dry.  Butter  from  me  the 
widow  fach  shall  have.  And  give  ladlings 
of  the  hogshead  to  my  pigs  and  scatter 
food  for  my  hens." 

She  tore  a  baston  from  a  tree,  trimmed 
it  and  blackened  it  with  blacking,  and  at 
noon  she  set  forth  to  the  house  of  her 


194  MY    NEIGHBORS 

daughter-in-law;  and  she  carried  in  a 
basket  butter,  two  dead  fowls,  potatoes, 
carrots,  and  a  white-hearted  cabbage,  and 
she  came  to  Josi's  house  in  the  darkness 
which  is  in  the  morning,  and  it  was  so  that 
she  rested  on  the  threshold;  and  in  the 
bright  light  Mary  Ann  opened  the  door, 
and  was  astonished.  "  Mam-in-law,"  she 
said,  "  there's  nasty  for  you  to  come  like 
this.  Speak  what  you  want.  Sitting  there 
is  not  respectable.  You  are  like  an  old 
woman  from  the  country." 

"  Come  am  I  to  sorrow,"  answered  Mali. 
"  Boy  all  grand  was  Josi  bach.  Look  at 
him  now  will  I." 

"  Talking  no  sense  you  are,"  said  Mary 
Ann.  '  Why  you  do  not  see  that  the 
house  is  full  of  muster?  Will  there  not 
be  many  Respecteds  at  the  funeral? " 

"  Much  preaching  shall  I  say?  " 

"  Indeed,  iss.  But  haste  about  now  and 
help  to  prepare  food  to  eat.  Slow  you 
are,  female." 

Presently  mourners  came  to  the  house, 


AWIDOWWOMAN  195 

and  when  each  had  walked  up  and  gazed 
upon  the  features  of  the  dead,  and  when 
the  singers  had  sung  and  the  Respecteds 
had  spoken,  and  while  a  carpenter 
turned  screws  into  the  coffin,  Mary  Ann 
said  to  Mali :  "  Clear  you  the  dishes  now, 
and  cut  bread  and  spread  butter  for  those 
who  will  return  after  the  funeral.  After 
all  have  been  served  go  you  home  to  Pen- 
coch."  She  drew  a  veil  over  her  face  and 
fell  to  weeping  as  she  followed  the  six 
men  who  carried  Josi's  coffin  to  the  hearse. 

Having  finished,  Mali  took  her  baston 
and  her  empty  basket  and  began  her  jour- 
ney. As  she  passed  over  Towy  Street — 
the  public  way  which  is  set  with  stones — 
she  saw  that  many  people  were  gathered 
at  the  gates  of  Beulah  to  witness  Mary 
Ann's  loud  lamentations  at  Josi's  grave. 

Mali  stayed  a  little  time;  then  she  went 
on,  for  the  light  was  dimming.  At  the 
hour  she  reached  Pencoch  the  mown  hay 
was  dry  and  the  people  were  gathering  it 
together.  She  cried  outside  the  house  of 


196  MY    NEIGHBORS 

Sara  Eye  Glass :  "  Large  thanks,  Sara  f  ach. 
Home  am  I,  and  like  pouring  water  were 
the  tears.  And  there's  preaching."  She 
milked  her  cows  and  fed  her  pigs  and  her 
fowls,  and  then  she  stepped  up  to  her  bed. 
The  sounds  of  dawn  aroused  her.  She 
said  to  herself:  "  There's  sluggish  am  I. 
Dear-dear,  rise  must  I  in  a  haste,  for  Mary 
Ann  will  need  butter  to  feed  the  baban 
bach  that  Josi  gave  her." 


UNANSWERED  PRAYERS 


XI 
UNANSWERED  PRAYERS 

WHEN  Winnie  Davies  was  let  out  of 
prison,  shame  pressed  heavily  on  her  feel- 
ings; and  though  her  mother  Martha  and 
her  father  Tim  prayed  almost  without 
ceasing,  she  did  not  come  home.  It  was 
so  that  one  night  Martha  watched  for  her 
at  a  window  and  Tim  prayed  for  her  at 
the  door  of  the  Tabernacle,  and  a  bomb 
fell  upon  the  ground  that  was  between 
them,  and  they  were  both  destroyed. 

All  the  days  of  their  life,  Tim  and 
Martha  were  poor  and  meek  and  religious; 
they  were  cheaper  than  the  value  set  on 
them  by  their  cheapeners.  As  a  reward 
for  their  pious  humility,  they  were  ap- 
pointed keepers  of  the  Welsh  Tabernacle, 
which  is  at  Kingsend.  At  that  they  took 
their  belongings  into  the  three  rooms  that 
are  below  the  chapel ;  and  their  spirits  were 

199 


200  MY    NEIGHBORS 

lifted  up  marvelously  that  the  Reverend 
Eylwin  Jones  and  the  deacons  of  the 
Tabernacle  had  given  to  them  the  way  of 
life. 

In  this  fashion  did  Tim  declare  his 
blessedness :  "  Charitable  are  Welsh  to 
Welsh.  Little  Big  Man,  boys  tidy  are 
boys  Capel  Tabernacle." 

'What  if  we  were  old  atheists?"  cried 
Martha. 

'  Wife  fach,  don't  you  send  me  in  a 
fright,"  Tim  said. 

They  two  applied  themselves  to  their 
tasks:  the  woman  washed  the  linen  and 
cleaned  the  doorsteps  and  the  houses  of 
her  neighbors,  the  man  put  posters  on 
hoardings,  trimmed  gardens,  stood  at  the 
doors  of  Welsh  gatherings.  By  night  they 
mustered,  sweeping  the  floor  of  the  chapel, 
polishing  the  wood  and  brass  that  were 
therein,  and  beating  the  cushions  and  has- 
socks which  were  in  the  pews  of  the  most 
honored  of  the  congregation.  Sunday 
mornings  Tim  put  a  white  india-rubber 


UNANSWERED    PRAYERS      201 

collar  under  the  Adam's  apple  in  his  throat, 
and  Martha  covered  her  long,  thin  body  in 
black  garments,  and  drew  her  few  hairs 
tightly  from  her  forehead. 

Though  they  clad  and  comported  them- 
selves soberly  Enoch  Harries,  who,  at  this 
day,  was  the  treasurer  and  head  deacon  of 
the  chapel,  spoke  up  against  them  to 
Eylwin  Jones.  This  is  his  complaint: 
"  Careless  was  Tim  in  the  dispatch  depart- 
ment, delivering  the  parcel  always  to  the 
wrong  customers  and  for  why  he  was 
sacked.  Good  was  I  to  get  him  the  capel. 
Careless  he  is  now  also.  By  twilight,  dark, 
and  thick  blackness,  light  electric  burns  in 
Tabernacle.  Waste  that  is.  Sound  will  I 
my  think.  Why  cannot  the  work  be  done 
in  the  day  I  don't  know." 

"  You  cannot  say  less,"  said  Eylwin 
Jones.  "  Pay  they  ought  for  this,  the 
irreligious  couple.  As  the  English 
proverb — '  There's  no  gratitude  in  the 
poor.'  " 

"  Another  serious  piece  of  picking  have 


202  MY    NEIGHBORS 

I,"  continued  Harries.  "  I  saw  Tim  stick- 
ing on  hoarding.  '  What,  dear  me,'  I 
mumbled  between  the  teeth — I  don't  speech 
to  myself,  man,  as  usual.  The  Apostles 
did,  now.  They  wrote  their  minds.  Bene- 
fit for  many  if  I  put  down  my  religious 
thinks  for  a  second  New  Testament. 
What  say  you,  Eylwin  Jones?  Lots  of 
says  very  clever  I  can  give  you — *  is  he 
sticking? '  A  biggish  paper  was  the  black 
pasting  about  Walham  Green  Music  Hall. 
What  do  you  mean  for  that?  And  the 
posters  for  my  between  season's  sale  were 
waiting  to  go  out." 

Rebuked,  Tim  and  Martha  left  over 
sinning:  and  Tim  put  Enoch  Harries' 
posters  in  places  where  they  should  not 
have  been  put,  wherefore  Enoch  smiled 
upon  him. 

"  Try  will  I  some  further,"  said  Tim  by 
and  by. 

"  Don't  you  crave  too  much,"  advised 
Martha.  "  The  Bad  Man  craved  the  pul- 
pit of  the  Big  Man." 


UNANSWERED    PRAYERS      203 

"  Shut  your  backhead.  Out  of  school 
will  Winnie  be  very  near  now." 

"  Speak  clear." 

"  Ask  Enoch  Harries  will  I  to  make  her 
his  servant." 

"  Be  modest  in  your  manner,"  Martha 
warned  her  husband.  "  Man  grand  is 
Enoch." 

"  Needing  servants  hap  he  does." 

"Perhaps,  iss;  perhaps,  no." 

"Cute  is  Winnie,"  said  Tim;  "and 
quick.  Sense  she  has." 

Tim  addressed  Enoch,  and  Enoch  an- 
swered :  "  Blabber  you  do  to  me,  why 
for?  Send  your  old  female  to  Mishtress 
Harries.  Order  you  her  to  go  quite  re- 
spectable." 

Curtsying  before  Mrs.  Harries,  Martha 
said:  "  I  am  Tim  Dan's'  wife." 

"  Oh,  really.  The  person  that  is  in 
charge  of  that  funny  little  Welsh  chapel." 
Mrs.  Harries  sat  at  a  table.  "  Give  me 
your  girl's  name,  age,  and  names  of  previ- 
ous employers  for  references."  Having 


204  MY    NEIGHBORS 

written  all  that  Martha  said,  she  re- 
marked: "We  are  moving  next  week  to  a 
large  establishment  in  Thornton  East.  I 
am  going  to  call  it  Windsor.  Of  course 
the  husband  and  I  will  go  to  the  English 
church.  I  thought  I  could  take  your  girl 
with  me  to  Windsor." 

'  The  titcher  give  her  an  excellent  char- 
acter." 

"I'll  find  that  out  for  myself.  Well, 
as  you  are  so  poor,  I'll  give  her  a  trial. 
I'll  pay  her  five  pounds  a  year  and  her 
keep.  I  do  hope  she  is  ladylike." 

Martha  told  Tim  that  which  Mrs.  Har- 
ries had  said,  and  Tim  observed :  "  I  will 
rejoice  in  a  bit  of  prayer." 

"  Iss,"  Martha  agreed.  "  In  the  parlor 
of  the  preacher.  They  go  up  quicker." 

God  was  requested  by  Tim  to  heap 
money  upon  Mrs.  Harries,  and  to  give 
Winnie  the  wisdom,  understanding,  and 
obedience  which  enable  one  to  serve  faith- 
fully those  who  sit  in  the  first  pews  in  the 
chapel. 


UNANSWERED    PRAYERS      205 

Now  Winnie  found  favor  in  the  sight 
of  her  mistress,  whose  personal  maid  she 
was  made  and  whose  habits  she  copied. 
She  painted  her  cheeks  and  dyed  her  hair 
and  eyebrows  and  eyelashes;  and  she  fre- 
quented Thornton  Vale  English  Congre- 
gational Chapel,  where  now  worshiped 
Enoch  and  his  wife.  Some  of  the  men 
who  came  to  Windsor  ogled  her  im- 
pudently, but  she  did  not  give  herself  to 
any  man.  These  ogles  Mrs.  Harries  in- 
terpreted truthfully  and  she  whipped  up 
her  jealous  rage. 

"  You're  too  fast,"  she  chided  Winnie. 
"  Look  at  your  blouse.  You  might  be  un- 
dressed. You  are  a  shame  to  your  sex. 
One  would  say  you  are  a  Piccadilly  street- 
walker and  they  wouldn't  be  far  wrong. 
I  won't  have  you  making  faces  at  my 
visitors.  Understand  that." 

Winnie  said:  "I  don't." 

"  You  must  change,  miss,"  Mrs.  Harries 
went  on.  "  Or  you  can  pack  your  box  and 
go  on  the  streets.  Must  not  think  because 


206  MY    NEIGHBORS 

you  are  Welsh  you  can  do  as  you  like 
here." 

On  a  sudden  Winnie  spoke  and  charged 
her  mistress  with  a  want  of  virtue. 

"  Is  that  the  kind  of  miss  you  are ! " 
Mrs.  Harries  shouted.  "  Where  did  you 
get  those  shoes  from? " 

'  You  yourself  gave  them  to  me." 

"  You  thief!  You  know  I  didn't.  They 
are  far  too  small  for  your  big  feet.  Come 
along — let's  see  what  you've  got  upstairs." 

That  hour  Mrs.  Harries  summoned  a 
policeman,  and  in  due  time  Winnie  was 
put  in  prison. 

Tim  and  Martha  did  not  speak  to  any 
one  of  this  that  had  been  done  to  their 
daughter. 

"  Punished  must  a  thief  be,"  said  Tim. 
"  Bad  is  the  wench." 

"  Bad  is  our  little  daughter,"  answered 
Martha. 

Sabbath  morning  came  and  she  wept. 

"  Showing  your  lament  you  are,  old 
fool,"  cried  Tim. 


UNANSWERED    PRAYERS      207 

"  For  sure,  no.    But  the  mother  am  I." 

Tim  said :  "  My  inside  shivers  oddly. 
Girl  fach  too  young  to  be  in  jail." 

A  fire  was  set  in  the  preacher's  parlor 
and  the  doors  of  the  Tabernacle  were 
opened.  Tim,  the  Bible  in  his  hands, 
stepped  up  to  the  pulpit,  his  eyes  closed 
in  prayer,  and  as  he  passed  up  he  stumbled. 

Eylwin  Jones  heard  the  noise  of  his  fall 
and  ran  into  the  chapel. 

"What's  the  matter?"  he  cried. 
"  Comic  you  look  on  your  stomach. 
Great  one  am  I  for  to  see  jokes." 

"  An  old  rod  did  catch  my  toe,"  Tim 
explained. 

Eylwin  changed  the  cast  of  his  counte- 
nance. "  Awful  you  are,"  he  reproved 
Tim.  "  Suppose  that  was  me.  Examine 
you  the  stairs.  Now  indeed  forget  a  hand- 
kerchief have  I  for  to  wipe  the  flow  of  the 
nose.  Order  Winnie  to  give  me  one  of 
Enoch  Harries.  Handkerchiefs  white  and 
smelly  he  has." 

"  111  is  Winnie  fach,"  said  Martha. 


208  MY    NEIGHBORS 

"  Gone  she  has  for  brief  weeks  to 
Wales,"  Tim  added. 

In  the  morning  Eylwin  came  to  the 
Tabernacle. 

"  Not  healthy  am  I,"  he  said.  "  Shock 
I  had  yesterday.  Fancy  I  do  a  rabbit 
from  Wales  for  the  goiter." 

"Tasty  are  rabbits,"  Tim  uttered. 

"  Clap  up,  indeed,"  said  Martha.  ;<  Too 
young  they  are  to  eat  and  are  they  not 
breeding? " 

"  Rabbits  very  young  don't  breed,"  re- 
marked Eylwin. 

"  They  do,"  Martha  avowed.  "  Some- 
times, iss;  sometimes,  no.  Poison  they 
are  when  they  breed." 

"  Not  talking  properly  you  are,"  said 
Eylwin.  "  Why  for  you  palaver  about 
breeding  to  the  preacher?  Cross  I  will 
be." 

"  Be  you  quiet  now,  Martha,"  said  Tim. 
"Lock  your  tongue." 

"  Send  a  letter  to  Winnie  for  a  rabbit ; 
two  rabbits  if  she  is  small,"  ordered 


UNANSWERED    PRAYERS      209 

Eylwin.       "  And     not     see     your     faults 
will  I." 

Tim  and  Martha  were  perplexed  and 
communed  with  each  other;  and  Tim 
walked  to  Wimbledon  where  he  was  not 
known  and"  so  have  his  errand  guessed. 
He  bought  a  rabbit  and  carried  it  to  the 
door  of  the  minister's  house.  "  A  rabbit 
from  Winnie  fach  in  Wales,"  he  said. 

"  Eat  her  I  will  before  I  judge  her," 
replied  Eylwin;  and  after  he  had  eaten  it 
he  said:  "  Quite  fair  was  the  animal.  Seri- 
ous dirty  is  the  capel.  As  I  flap  my  hand 
on  the  cushion  Bible  in  my  eloquence,  like 
chimney  smoke  is  the  dust.  Clean  you  at 
once.  For  are  not  the  anniversary  meet- 
ings on  the  sixth  Sabbath?  All  the  rich 
Welsh  will  be  there,  and  Enoch  Harries 
and  the  wife  of  him." 

He  came  often  to  view  Tim  and  Martha 
at  their  labor. 

"  Fortunate  is  your  wench  to  have  holi- 
day," he  said  one  day.  "  Hard  have 
preachers  to  do  in  the  vineyard." 


210  MY    NEIGHBORS 

"  Hear  we  did  this  morning,"  Tim  began 
to  speak. 

"  In  a  hurry  am  I,"  Eylwin  interrupted. 
"  Fancy  I  do  butter  from  Wales  with  one 
pinch  of  salt  in  him.  Tell  Winnie  to  send 
butter  that  is  salted." 

Martha  bought  two  pounds  of  butter. 

"  Mean  is  his  size,"  Tim  grieved. 

"  Much  is  his  cost,"  Martha  whined. 

"  Get  you  one  pound  of  marsherin  and 
make  him  one  and  put  him  on  a  wetted 
cabbage  leaf." 

The  fifth  Sunday  dawned. 

"  Next  to-morrow,"  said  Martha,  "  the 
daughter  will  be  home.  Go  you  to  the 
jail  and  fetch  her,  and  take  you  for  her  a 
big  hat  for  old  jailers  cut  the  hair  very 
short." 

"  No-no,"  Tim  replied.  "  Better  she  re- 
turns and  speak  nothing.  With  no  ques- 
tions shall  we  question  her." 

Monday  opened  and  closed. 

"  Mistake  is  in  your  count,"  Martha 
hinted. 


UNANSWERED    PRAYERS      211 

"  Slow  scolar  am  I,"  said  Tim.  "  Count 
will  I  once  more." 

"  Don't  you,  boy  bach,"  Martha  has- 
tened to  say.  "  Come  she  will." 

At  the  dusk  of  Friday  Eylwin  Jones,  his 
goitered  chin  shivering,  ran  furiously  and 
angrily  into  the  Tabernacle.  "  Ho-ho," 
he  cried.  "  In  jail  is  Winnie.  A  scampess 
is  she  and  a  whore.  Here's  scandal. 
Mother  and  father  of  a  thief  in  the  house 
of  the  capel  bach  of  Jesus  Christ.  Robbed 
Mistress  Harries  she  did.  Broke  is  the 
health  of  the  woman  nice  as  a  consequent. 
She  will  not  be  at  the  anniversary  meet- 
ings because  the  place  is  contaminated  by 
you  pair.  And  her  husband  won't.  Five 
shillings  each  they  give  to  the  collection. 
The  capel  wants  the  half  soferen.  Out  you 
go.  Now  at  once." 

Tim  and  Martha  were  sorely  troubled 
that  Winnie  would  come  to  the  Chapel 
House  and  not  finding  them,  would  go 
away. 

"  Loiter  will  I  near  by,"  said  Tim. 


212  MY    NEIGHBORS 

"  Say  we  rent  a  room  and  peer  for  her," 
said  Martha. 

Thereon  from  dusk  to  day  either  Tim  or 
Martha  sat  at  the  window  of  their  room 
and  watched.  The  year  died  and  spring 
and  summer  declined  into  autumn,  when 
on  a  moon-lit  night  men  flew  in  machines 
over  London  and  loosened  bombs  upon  the 
people  thereof. 

"  Feared  am  I,"  said  Martha,  "  that  our 
daughter  is  not  in  the  shelter."  She 
screamed:  "Don't  stand  there  like  a  mule. 
Pray,  Tim  man." 

Remembering  how  that  he  had  prayed, 
Tim  answered :  "  Try  a  prayer  will  I  near 
the  capel." 

So  Martha  watched  at  her  window  and 
Tim  prayed  at  the  door  of  'the  Tabernacle. 


LOST  TREASURE 


XII 
LOST  TREASURE 

HERE  is  the  tale  that  is  told  about  Hugh 
Evans,  who  was  a  commercial  traveler  in 
drapery  wares,  going  forth  on  his  jour- 
neys on  Mondays  and  coming  home  on 
Fridays.  The  tale  tells  how  on  a  Friday 
night  Hugh  sat  at  the  table  in  the  kitchen 
of  his  house,  which  is  in  Parson's  Green. 
He  had  before  him  coins  of  gold,  silver, 
and  copper,  and  also  bills  of  his  debts;  and 
upon  each  bill  he  placed  certain  monies 
in  accordance  with  the  sum  marked  there- 
on. Having  fixed  the  residue  of  his  coins 
and  having  seen  that  he  held  ten  pounds, 
his  mind  was  filled  with  such  bliss  that  he 
said  within  himself:  "A  nice  little  amount 
indeed.  Brisk  are  affairs." 

"  Millie,"  he  addressed  his  wife,  "  look 
over  them  and  add  them  together." 

215 


216  MY    NEIGHBORS 

"Wait  till  I'm  done,"  was  the  answer. 
'  The  irons  are  all  hotted  up." 

Hugh  chided  her.  '  You  are  not  inter- 
ested in  my  saving.  You  don't  care.  It's 
nothing  to  you.  Forward,  as  I  call." 

"  If  I  sit  down,"  Millie  offered,  "  I  feel 
I  shall  never  get  up  again  and  the  irons 
are  hotted  and  what  I  think  is  a  shame 
to  waste  gas  like  this  the  price  it  is." 

'  Why  didn't  you  say  so  at  the  first 
opportunity?  Be  quick  then.  I  shan't 
allow  the  cash  to  lay  here." 

Duly  Millie  observed  her  husband's  order, 
and  what  time  she  proved  that  which  Hugh 
had  done,  she  was  admonished  that  she 
had  spent  too  much  on  this  and  that. 

"  I'm  doing  all  I  can  not  to  be  extrava- 
gant," she  whimpered.  "  I  don't  buy  a 
thing  for  my  back."  Her  short  upper  lip 
curled  above  her  broken  teeth  and  trem- 
bled; she  wept. 

"  But  whatever,"  said  Hugh  softening 
his  spirit,  "  I  got  ten  soferens  in  hand. 
Next  quarter  less  you  need  and  more  you 


LOST    TREASURE  217 

have.  Less  gass  and  electric.  You  don't 
gobble  food  so  ravishingly  in  warm 
weather.  The  more  I  save." 

Having  exchanged  the  ten  pounds  for  a 
ten-pound  note,  remorse  seized  Hugh.  "  A 
son  of  a  mule  am  I,"  he  said.  "  Danger- 
ous is  paper  as  he  blows.  If  he  blows! 
Bulky  are  soferens  and  shillings.  If  you 
lose  two,  you  got  the  remnants.  But  they 
are  showy  and  tempting."  He  laid  the 
note  under  his  pillow  and  slept,  and  he 
took  it  with  him,  secreted  on  his  person, 
to  Kingsend  Chapel,  where  every  Sunday 
morning  and  evening  he  sang  hymns, 
bowed  under  prayer,  and  entertained  his 
soul  with  sermons. 

Just  before  departing  on  Monday  he 
gave  the  note  to  Millie.  "  Keep  him  se- 
curely," he  counseled  her.  "  Tell  nobody 
we  stock  so  much  cash." 

Millie  put  the  note  between  the  folds  of 
a  Paisley  shawl,  which  was  precious  to  her 
inasmuch  as  it  had  been  her  mother's,  and 
she  wrapped  a  blanket  over  the  shawl  and 


218  MY    NEIGHBORS 

placed  it  in  a  cupboard.  But  on  Friday 
she  could  not  remember  where  she  had 
hidden  the  note;  "never  mind,"  she  con- 
soled herself,  "  it  will  occur  to  me  all  of  a 
sudden." 

As  that  night  Hugh  cast  off  his  silk  hat 
and  his  frock  coat,  he  shouted:  "Got  the 
money  all  tightly? " 

"  Yes,"  replied  Millie  quickly.  "  As  safe 
as  in  the  Bank  of  England." 

"  Can't  be  safer  than  that.  Keep  him 
close  to  you  and  tell  no  one.  Paper  money 
has  funny  ways."  Hugh  then  prophesied 
that  in  a  year  his  wealth  in  a  mass  would 
be  fifty  pounds. 

'  With  ordinary  luck,  and  I'm  sure  you 
desire  it  because  you're  always  at  it,  it 
will,"  Millie  agreed. 

"  No  luck  about  it.  No  stop  to  me. 
We've  nothing  to  purchase.  And  you 
don't.  At  home  you  are,  with  food  and 
clothes  and  a  ceyling  above  you.  Kings 
don't  want  many  more." 

"  Yes,"  said  Millie.    "  No." 


LOST    TREASURE  219 

Weeks  passed  and  Millie  was  concerned 
that  she  could  not  find  the  note,  tried  she 
never  so  hard.  At  the  side  of  her  bed 
she  entreated  to  be  led  to  it,  and  in  the 
day  she  often  paused  and  closing  her  eyes 
prayed:  "Almighty  Father,  bring  it  to 
me." 

The  last  Friday  of  the  quarter  Hugh 
divided  his  money  in  lots,  and  it  was  that 
he  had  eleven  pounds  over  his  debts. 
"  Eleven  soferens  now,"  he  cried  to  his 
wife.  "  That's  grand!  Makes  twenty-one 
the  first  six  months  of  the  wedded  life." 

"  It  reflects  great  credit  on  you,"  said 
Millie,  concealing  her  unhappiness. 

"  Another  eighty  and  I'd  have  an 
agency.  Start  a  factory,  p'raps.  There's 
John  Daniel.  He  purchases  an  house. 
Ten  hands  he  has  working  gents'  shirts 
for  him." 

Millie  turned  away  her  face  and  de- 
manded from  God  strength  with  which  to 
acquaint  her  husband  of  her  misfortune. 
What  she  asked  for  was  granted  unto  her 


220  MY    NEIGHBORS 

at  her  husband's  amorous  moment  of  the 
Sabbath  morning. 

Hugh's  passion  deadened,  and  in  his 
agony  he  sweated. 

"  They're  gone!  Every  soferen,"  he 
cried.  "  They  can't  all  have  gone.  The 
whole  ten."  He  opened  his  eyes  widely. 
"  Woe  is  me.  Dear  me.  Dear  me." 

Until  day  dimmed  and  night  grayed  did 
they  two  search,  neither  of  them  eating  and 
neither  of  them  discovering  the  treasure. 

Therefore  Hugh  had  not  peace  nor 
quietness.  Grief  he  uttered  with  his 
tongue,  arms,  and  feet,  and  it  was  in  the 
crease  of  his  garments.  He  sought  sym- 
pathy and  instruction  from  those  with 
whom  he  traded.  "  All  the  steam  is  gone 
out  of  me,"  he  wailed.  One  shopkeeper 
advised  him :  '  Has  it  slipped  under  the 
lino  ?  "  Another  said :  "  Any  mice  in  the 
house?  Money  has  been  found  in  their 
holes."  The  third  said:  "Sure  the  wife 
hasn't  spent  it  on  dress.  You  know  what 
ladies  are."  These  hints  and  more  Hugh 


LOST    TREASURE  221 

wrote  down  on  paper,  and  he  mused  in  this 
wise :  "  An  old  liar  is  the  wench.  For 
why  I  wedded  the  English?  Right  was 
mam  fach;  senseless  they  are.  Crying  she 
has  lost  the  yellow  gold,  the  bitch.  What 
blockhead  lost  one  penny?  What  is  in 
the  stomach  of  my  purse  this  one  minute? 
Three  shillings — soferen — five  pennies — 
half  a  penny — ticket  railway.  Hie  back- 
wards will  I  on  Thursday  on  the  surprise. 
No  comfort  is  mine  before  I  peep  once 
again." 

He  pried  in  every  drawer  and  cup- 
board, and  in  the  night  he  arose  and  in- 
quired into  the  clothes  his  wife  had  left 
off;  and  he  pushed  his  fingers  into  the  holes 
of  mice  and  under  the  floor  coverings,  and 
groped  in  the  fireplaces;  and  he  put  subtle 
questions  to  Millie. 

"  If  you'd  done  like  this  in  a  shop  you'd 
be  sacked  without  a  ref,"  he  said  when  his 
search  was  over.  "We  must  have  him 
back.  It's  a  sin  to  let  him  go.  Reduce 
expenses  at  once." 


222  MY    NEIGHBORS 

Millie  disrobed  herself  by  the  light  of  a 
street  lamp,  and  she  ate  little  of  such 
foods  as  are  cheapest,  whereat  her  white 
cheeks  sunk  and  there  was  no  more  luster 
in  her  brown  hair;  and  her  larder  was 
as  though  there  was  a  famine  in  the 
country.  If  she  said  to  Hugh :  *  Your 
boots  are  leaking,"  she  was  told:  "Had 
I  the  soferens  I  would  get  a  pair  " ;  or  if 
she  said:  'We  haven't  a  towel  in  the 
place,"  the  reply  was:  "Find  the  soferens 
and  buy  one  or  two." 

The  more  Hugh  sorrowed  and  scrimped, 
the  more  he  gained;  and  word  of  his 
fellows'  hardships  struck  his  broad,  loose 
ears  with  a  pleasant  tinkle.  While  on  his 
journeys  he  stayed  at  common  lodging- 
houses,  and  he  did  not  give  back  to  his 
employers  any  of  the  money  which  was 
allowed  him  to  stay  at  hotels.  Some  folk 
despised  him,  some  mocked  him,  and  many 
nicknamed  him  "the  ten-pound  traveler." 
To  the  shopkeeper  who  hesitated  to  deal 
with  him  he  whined  his  loss,  making  it 


LOST    TREASURE  223 

greater  than  it  was,  and  expressing:  "  The 
interest  alone  is  very  big." 

By  such  methods  he  came  to  possess  one 
hundred  and  twenty  pounds  in  two  years. 
His  employers  had  knowledge  of  his  deeds, 
and  they  summoned  him  to  them  and  said 
to  him  that  because  of  the  drab  shabbiness 
of  his  clothes  and  his  dishonest  acts  they 
had  appointed  another  in  his  stead. 

"  You  started  this,"  he  admonished 
Millie.  "  Bring  light  upon  mattar." 

"What  can  I  do?"  Millie  replied. 
"  Shall  I  go  back  to  the  dressmaking  as 
I  was?" 

Hugh  was  not  mollified.  By  means  of 
such  women  man  is  brought  to  a  penny. 
He  felt  dishonored  and  wounded.  Of  the 
London  Welsh  he  was  the  least.  Look  at 
Enos-Harries  and  Ben  Lloyd  and  Eynon 
Davies.  There's  boys  for  you.  And  look 
at  the  black  John  Daniel,  who  was  a  pren- 
tice with  him  at  Carmarthen.  Hark  him 
ordering  preacher  Kingsend.  Watch  him 
on  the  platform  on  the  Day  of  David  the 


224  MY    NEIGHBORS 

Saint.  And  all,  dear  me,  out  of  J. 
D.'s  Ritfit  three-and-sixpence  gents'  tunic 
shirts. 

He  considered  a  way,  of  which  he  spoke 
darkly  to  Millie,  lest  she  might  cry  out  his 
intention. 

"  No  use  troubling,"  he  said  in  a  changed 
manner.  "  Come  West  and  see  the  shops." 

Westward  they  two  went,  pausing  at 
windows  behind  which  were  displayed 
costly  blouses. 

"  That's  plenty  at  two  guineas,"  Hugh 
said  of  one. 

"  It's  a  Paris  model,"  said  Millie. 

"  Nothing  in  her.     Nothing." 

"  Not  much  material,  I  grant,"  Millie 
observed.  "  The  style  is  fashionable  and 
they  charge  a  lot." 

"  I  like  to  see  you  in  her,"  said  Hugh. 
"  Take  in  the  points  and  make  her  with 
an  odd  length  of  silk." 

When  the  blouse  was  finished,  Hugh 
took  it  to  a  man  at  whose  shop  trade  the 
poorest  sort  of  middle-class  women,  say- 


LOST    TREASURE  225 

ing:  "  I  can  let  you  have  a  line  like  this  at 
thirty-five  and  six  a  dozen." 

"  I'll  try  three  twelves,"  said  the  man. 

Then  Hugh  went  into  the  City  and 
fetched  up  Japanese  silk,  and  lace,  and 
large  white  buttons;  and  Millie  sewed  with 
her  might. 

Hugh  thrived,  and  his  success  was  noised 
among  the  London  Welsh.  The  preacher 
of  Kingsend  Chapel  visited  him. 

"  Not  been  in  the  Temple  you  have, 
Mistar  Eevanss,  almost  since  you  were 
spliced,"  he  said.  "  Don't  say  the  wife 
makes  you  go  to  the  capel  of  the  English." 

"  Busy  am  I  making  money." 

"  News  that  is  to  me,  Mistar  Eevanss. 
Much  welcome  there  is  for  you  with 
us." 

In  four  years  Hugh  had  eighteen  ma- 
chines, at  each  of  which  a  skilled  woman 
sat;  and  he  hired  young  girls  to  sew 
through  buttons  and  hook-and-eyes  and  to 
make  button-holes.  These  women  and 
girls  were  under  the  hand  of  Millie,  who 


226  MY    NEIGHBORS 

kept  count  of  their  comings  and  goings 
and  the  work  they  performed,  holding  from 
their  wages  the  value  of  the  material  they 
spoilt  and  of  the  minutes  they  were  not  at 
their  task.  Millie  labored  faithfully,  her 
heart  being  perfect  with  her  husband's. 
She  and  Hugh  slept  in  the  kitchen,  for  all 
the  other  rooms  were  stockrooms  or  work- 
rooms; and  the  name  by  which  the  concern 
was  called  was  "  The  French  Model  Blouse 
Co.  Manageress — Mme.  Zetta,  the  notori- 
ous French  Modiste." 

Howsoever  bitterly  people  were  pressed, 
Hugh  did  not  cease  to  prosper.  In  riches, 
honor,  and  respect  he  passed  many  of  the 
London  Welsh. 

For  that  he  could  not  provide  all  the 
blouses  that  were  requested  of  him,  he 
rented  a  big  house.  That  hour  men  were 
arrived  to  take  thereto  his  belongings, 
Millie  said:  "I'll  throw  the  Paisley  shawl 
over  my  arm.  I  wouldn't  lose  it  for  any- 
thing " ;  and  as  she  moved  away  the  ten- 
pound  note  fell  on  the  ground.  "  Well,  I 


LOST    TREASURE  227 

never!  "  she  cried  in  her  dismay.  "  It  was 
there  all  the  time." 

Hugh  seized  the  note  from  her  hand. 

"  You've  the  head  of  a  sieve,"  he  said. 
Also  he  lamented :  "  All  these  years  we 
had  no  interest  in  him." 


PROFIT  AND  GLORY 


XIII 
PROFIT  AND  GLORY 

BY  serving  in  shops,  by  drinking  himself 
drunk,  and  by  shamming  good  fortune, 
Jacob  Griffiths  gave  testimony  to  the 
miseries  and  joys  of  life,  and  at  the  age 
of  fifty-six  he  fell  back  in  his  bed  at  his 
lodging-house  in  Clapham,  suffered,  drew 
up  his  crippled  knees  and  died.  On  the 
morrow  his  brother  Simon  hastened  to  the 
house;  and  as  he  neared  the  place  he 
looked  up  and  beheld  his  sisters  Annie  and 
Jane  fach  also  hurrying  thither.  Presently 
they  three  saw  one  another  as  with  a  single 
eye,  wherefore  they  slackened  their  pace 
and  walked  with  seemliness  to  the  door. 
Jacob's  body  was  on  a  narrow,  disordered 
bed,  and  in  the  state  of  its  deliverance: 
its  eyes  were  aghast  and  its  hands  were 
clenched  in  deathful  pangs. 

Then  Simon  bowed  his  trunk  and  lifted 

231 


232  MY    NEIGHBORS 

his  silk  hat  and  his  umbrella  in  the  manner 
of  a  preacher  giving  a  blessing. 

"  Of  us  family  can  be  claimed,"  he  pro- 
nounced, "  that  even  the  Angel  do  not 
break  us.  We  must  all  cross  Jordan. 
Some  go  with  boats  and  bridges.  Some 
swim.  Some  bridges  charge  a  toll — one 
penny  and  two  pennies.  A  toll  there  is  to 
cross  Jordan." 

"  He'll  be  better  when  he's  washed  and 
laid  out  proper,"  remarked  the  woman  of 
the  lodging-house. 

"  Let  down  your  apron  from  your  head," 
Simon  said  to  her.  '  We  are  mourning 
for  our  brother,  the  son  of  the  similar 
father  and  mother.  You  don't  think  me 
insulting  if  I  was  alone  with  the  corpse. 
I  shan't  be  long  at  my  religious  perform- 
ance. I  am  a  busy  man  like  you." 

The  woman  having  gone,  he  spoke  at 
Jacob :  "  Perished  you  are  now,  Shacob. 
You  have  unraveled  the  tangled  skein  of 
eternal  life.  Pray  I  do  you  will  find  rest 
with  the  restless  of  big  London.  Annie 


PROFIT    AND    GLORY  233 

and  Jane  fach,  sorrowful  you  are;  wet  are 
your  tears.  Go  you  and  drink  a  nice  cup 
of  tea  in  the  cafe.  Most  eloquent  I  shall 
be  in  a  minute  and  there's  hysterics  you'll 
get.  Arrive  will  I  after  you.  Don't  pay 
for  tea;  that  will  I  do." 

"  Iss,  indeed,"  said  Annie.  "  Off  you, 
Jane  fach.  You,  Simon,  with  her,  for 
fear  she  is  slayed  in  the  street.  Sit  here 
will  I  and  speak  to  the  spirit  of  Shacob." 

'  The  pant  of  my  breath  is  not  back  " 
— ^Jane  fach's  voice  was  shrill.  "  Did  I 
not  muster  on  reading  the  death  letter? 
Witness  the  mud  sprinkled  on  my  gown." 

'  Why  should  you  muster,  little  sister? " 
inquired  Simon. 

"  Right  that  I  reach  him  in  respectable 
time,  was  the  think  inside  me,"  Jane  fach 
answered.  :<  What  other  design  have  I  ? 
Stay  here  I  will.  A  boy,  dear  me,  for  a 
joke  was  Shacob  with  me.  Heaps  of  gifts 
he  made  me;  enough  to  fill  a  yellow  tin 
box." 

"  Generous  he  was,"  Simon  said.    "  Hap 


234  MY    NEIGHBORS 

he  parted  with  all.  Full  of  feeling  you 
are.  But  useless  that  we  loll  here.  No 
odds  for  me;  this  is  my  day  in  the  City. 
How  will  your  boss  treat  you,  Annie,  for 
being  away  without  a  pass?  Angry  will 
your  buyer  be,  I  would  be  in  a  temper  with 
my  young  ladies.  Hie  to  the  office,  Jane. 
Don't  you  borrow  borrowings  from  me  if 
you  are  sacked." 

"  You  are  as  sly  as  the  cow  that  steals 
into  clover,"  Annie  cried  out.  She  re- 
moved her  large  hat  and  set  upright  the 
osprey  feathers  thereon,  puffed  out  her 
hair  which  was  fashioned  in  a  high  pile, 
and  whitened  with  powder  the  birth-stain 
on  her  cheek.  "  They  daren't  discharge 
me.  I'd  carry  the  costume  trade  with  me. 
Each  second  you  hear,  '  Miss  Witton- 
Griffiths,  forward,'  and  'Miss  Witton- 
Griffiths,  her  heinness  is  waiting  for  you.' 
In  favor  am  I  with  the  buyer." 

"  Whisper  to  me  your  average  takings 
per  week,"  Simon  craved.  "  Not  repeat 
will  I." 


PROFIT    AND    GLORY  235 

After  exaggerating  her  report,  Annie 
said:  "You  are  going  now,  then." 

Jane  fach  took  from  a  chair  a  cup  that 
had  tea  in  it,  a  candlestick — the  candle  in 
which  died  before  Jacob — and  a  teapot, 
and  she  sat  in  the  chair.  "  Oo-oo,"  she 
squeaked.  "  Sorry  am  I  you  are  flown." 

"  Stupid  wenches  you  are,"  Simon  ad- 
monished his  sisters.  "  And  curious. 
Scandalous  you  are  to  pry  into  the  leav- 
ings of  the  perished  dead." 

Jane  fach,  whose  shoulders  were 
crumped  and  whose  nose  was  as  the  beak 
of  a  parrot,  put  forth  her  head.  '  The 
reins  of  a  flaming  chariot  can't  drag 
me  from  him.  Was  he  not  father 
to  me?  Much  he  handed  and  more  he 
promised." 

"  Great  is  your  avarice,"  Simon  de- 
clared. 

"  Fonder  he  was  of  me  than  any  one," 
Annie  cried.  '  The  birthdays  he  pre- 
sented me  with  dresses — until  he  was 
sacked.  While  I  was  cribbing,  did  he 


236  MY    NEIGHBORS 

not  speak  well  to  my  buyer?  Fitting  I 
stay  with  him  this  day." 

"  I  was  his  chief  friend,"  said  Simon. 
;*  We  were  closer  than  brothers.  So  grand 
was  he  to  me  that  I  could  howl  once  more. 
Iss,  I  could  preach  a  funeral  sermon  on 
my  brother  Shacob." 

Jacob's  virtues  were  truly  related. 
Much  had  the  man  done  for  his  younger 
brother  and  sisters;  albeit  his  behavior  was 
vain,  ornamenting  his  person  garishly  and 
cheaply,  and  comporting  himself  foolishly. 
Summer  by  summer  he  went  to  Wales  and 
remained  there  two  weeks;  and  he  gave  a 
packet  of  tea  or  coffee  to  every  widow  who 
worshiped  in  the  capel,  and  a  feast  of  tea 
and  currant  bread  and  carraway-seed  cake 
to  the  little  children  of  the  capel. 

Wheedlers  flattered  him  for  gain:  "  The 
watch  of  a  nobleman  you  carry "  and 
"  The  ring  would  buy  a  field,"  said  those 
about  Sion ;  "  Never  seen  a  more  exact 
fact  simily  of  King  George  in  my  life  than 
you,"  cried  spongers  in  London  public- 


PROFIT    AND    GLORY  237 

houses.  All  grasped  whatever  gifts  they 
could  and  turned  from  him  laughing:  "  The 
watch  of  the  fob  is  brass " ;  "  No  more 
worth  than  a  play  marble  is  the  ring " ; 
"  Old  Griffiths  is  the  bloomin'  limit."  Yet 
Jacob  had  delight  in  the  thought  that  folk 
passed  him  rich  for  his  apparel  and  acts. 

'  Waste  of  hours  very  awful  is  this," 
Simon  uttered  by  and  by.  He  brought 
out  his  order  book  and  a  blacklead  pencil. 
"  Take  stock  will  I  now  and  put  down." 

He  searched  the  pockets  of  Jacob's  gar- 
ments and  the  drawers  in  the  chest,  and 
knelt  on  his  knees  and  peered  under 
Jacob's  bed;  and  all  that  he  found  were 
trashy  clothes  and  boots.  His  sisters  tore 
open  the  seams  of  the  garments  and 
spread  their  fingers  in  the  hollow  places, 
and  they  did  not  find  anything. 

"Jewellary  he  had,"  exclaimed  Annie. 
"  Much  was  the  value  of  his  diamond  ring. 
'  This  I  will  to  you,'  he  said  to  me.  Cham- 
pion she  would  seem  on  my  finger.  Half  a 
hundred  guineas  was  her  worth." 


238  MY    NEIGHBORS 

"  Where  is  the  watch  and  chain? "  Jane 
fach  demanded.  "  Gold  they  were.  Link 
like  the  fingers  of  feet  the  chain  had. 
These  I  have." 

"  Lovely  were  his  solitaires,"  cried 
Annie.  "  They  are  mine." 

"  Liar    of    a    bitch,"    said    Jane    fach. 

'  All  is  yours/  mouthed  Shacob  my 
brother,  who  hears  me  in  the  Palace."  . 

Simon  answered  neither  yea  nor  no.  He 
stepped  down  to  the  woman  of  the  house. 
"  I  have  a  little  list  here  of  the  things  my 
brother  left  in  your  keeping,"  he  began. 
"  Number  wan,  gold  watch " 

The  woman  opened  her  lips  and  spoke: 
"  Godstruth,  he  didn't  have  a  bean  to  his 
name.  Gold  watch!  I  had  to  call  him  in 
the  mornings.  What  with  blacking  his 
whiskers  and  being  tender  on  his  feet,  which 
didn't  allow  of  him  to  run  to  say  the  least 
of  it,  I  was  about  pretty  early.  Else  he'd 
never  get  to  Ward's  at  all.  And  Balham 
is  a  long  run  from  here." 

"  I  will  come  back  and  see  you  later," 


PROFIT    AND    GLORY  239 

Simon  replied,  and  he  returned  to  his  sis- 
ters. "  Hope  I  do,"  he  said  to  them. 
'  You  discover  his  affairs.  All  belong  to 
you.  Tall  was  his  regard  for  you  two. 
Now  we  will  prepare  to  bury  him.  Privi- 
lege to  bury  the  dead.  Sending  the  corpse 
to  the  crystal  capel.  Not  wedded  are  you 
like  me.  Heavy  is  the  keep  of  three  chil- 
dren and  the  wife." 

"  For  why  could  not  the  fool  have  saved 
for  his  burying,  I  don't  say  ? "  Annie 
cried.  "  Let  the  perished  perish.  That's 
equal  for  all." 

"  In  sense  is  your  speech,"  Simon 
agreed.  "  Shop  fach  very  neat  he  might 
have  if  he  was  like  me  and  you." 

"  Throwing  away  money  he  did,"  Annie 
said.  "  I  helped  him  three  years  ago  when 
he  was  sacked.  Did  I  not  pay  for  him  to 
sleep  one  month  in  lodgings?" 

"  I  got  his  frock  coat  cleaned  at  cost 
price,"  Jane  fach  remembered,  "  and  sewed 
silk  on  her  fronts.  I  lent  him  lendings. 
Where  are  my  lendings? " 


240  MY    NEIGHBORS 

"  A  squanderer  you  were,"  Simon  re- 
buked the  body.  '  Tidy  sums  you  spent 
in  pubs.  Booze  got  you  the  sack  after 
twenty  years  in  the  same  shop.  Dis- 
graced was  I  to  have  such  a  brother  as 
you,  Shacob.  Where  was  your  religion, 
man?  But  he  has  to  be  buried,  little 
sisters,  or  babbling  there'll  be.  Cheap 
funeral  will  suit  in  Fulham  cematary. 
Reasonable  your  share  is  more  than  mine, 
because  the  Big  Man  has  trusted  me  with 
sons." 

"  No  sense  is  in  you,"  Annie  shouted. 
"  Not  one  coin  did  he  repay  me.  The 
coins  he  owed  me  are  my  share." 

"  As  an  infidel  you  are,"  said  Simon. 
"  Ach  y  fy,  cheating  the  grave  of  cus- 
tom." 

"  Leaving  am  I."  Jane  fach  rose. 
"  Late  is  the  day." 

"  Woe  is  me,"  Simon  wailed.  "  Like 
the  old  Welsh  of  Cardigan  is  your  cunning. 
Come  you  this  night  here  to  listen  to 
funeral  estimates.  Don't  you  make  me 


PROFIT    AND    GLORY  241 

bawl  this  in  your  department,  Annie,  and 
in  your  office  laundry,  Jane." 

From  the  street  door  he  journeyed  by 
himself  to  Balham,  and  habiting  his  face 
with  grief,  he  related  to  Mr.  Ward  how 
Jacob  died. 

"  He  passed  in  my  arms,"  he  said ; 
"  very  gently — willingly  he  gave  back  the 
ghost.  A  laugh  in  his  face  that  might  be 
saying:  '  I  see  Thy  wonders,  O  Lord.' ' 

'  This  is  very  sad,"  said  Mr.  Ward. 
"If  there  is  anything  we  can  do— 

'  You  speak  as  a  Christian  who  goes  to 
chapel,  sir.  It's  hard  to  discuss  business 
now  just.  But  Jacob  has  told  he  left  a 
box  in  your  keep." 

"I  don't  think  so.  Still,  I'll  make 
sure."  Mr.  Ward  went  away,  and  re- 
turning, said :  "  The  only  thing  he  left 
here  is  this  old  coat  which  he  wore  at 
squadding  in  the  morning.  Of  course  there 
is  his  salary " 

"  Yes,  yes,  I  know.  I'd  give  millions 
of  salaries  for  my  brother  back." 


242  MY    NEIGHBORS 

'You  are  his  only  relative?" 

"  Indeed,  sir.  No  father  and  mother 
had  he.  An  orphan.  Quite  pathetic.  I 
will  never  grin  again.  Good  afternoon, 
sir.  I  hope  you'll  have  a  successful  sum- 
mer sale." 

"  Hadn't  you  better  take  his  money? " 
said  Mr.  Ward.  '  We  pay  quarterly 
here." 

"  Certainly  it  will  save  coming  again. 
But  business  is  business,  even  in  the  pres- 
ence of  the  dead." 

"  It's  eighteen  pounds.  That's  twelve 
weeks  at  one-ten." 

'  Well,  if  you  insist,  insist  you  do. 
Prefer  I  would  to  have  my  brother  Jacob 
back." 

Simon  put  the  coat  over  his  arm  and 
counted  the  money,  and  after  he  had  drunk 
a  little  beer  and  eaten  of  bread  and  cheese, 
he  made  deals  with  a  gravedigger  and  an 
undertaker,  and  the  cost  for  burying 
Jacob  was  eight  pounds. 

That  night  he  was  with  his  sisters,  say- 


PROFIT    AND    GLORY  243 

ing  to  them:  '  Twelve  soferens  will  put 
him  in  the  earth.  Four  soferens  per  each." 

"  None  can  I  afford,"  Jane  fach  vowed. 
"  Not  paid  my  pew  rent  in  Capel  Charing 
Cross  have  I." 

"  Easier  for  me  to  fly  than  bring  the 
cash,"  said  Annie.  "  Larger  is  your  screw 
than  me." 

Simon  smote  the  ground  with  his  um- 
brella and  stayed  further  words.  "  Give 
the  soferens,  bullocks  of  Hell  fire." 

Annie  and  Jane  fach  were  distressed. 
The  first  said:  "The  flesh  of  the  swine 
shall  smell  before  I  do."  The  second  said: 
"  Hard  you  are  on  a  bent-back  wench." 

Notwithstanding  their  murmurs,  Simon 
hurled  at  them  the  spite  of  his  wrath, 
reviling  them  foully  and  filthily;  and  the 
women  got  afraid  that  out  of  his  anger 
would  come  mischief,  and  each  gave  as 
she  was  commanded. 

The  third  day  Simon  and  Annie  and 
Jane  fach  stood  at  Jacob's  grave;  and 
Annie  and  Jane  were  put  to  shame  that 


244  MY    NEIGHBORS 

Simon  bragged  noisily  how  that  he  had 
caused  a  name-plate  to  be  made  for 
Jacob's  coffin  and  a  wreath  of  glass  flowers 
for  the  mound  of  Jacob's  grave. 


THE  END 


\ 


A     000106425     2 


